Britain's Kell Brook ended a 14-month absence from the ring with a comprehensive victory over Mark DeLuca on Saturday night.
Roared on by a hometown crowd at the Sheffield Arena and with Liam Smith watching from ringside, 'Special K', stepping up to 154lbs, dominated a one-sided bout and remained patient against a durable but limited opponent before sealing the inevitable stoppage in round seven.
Brook, 33, will hope the win helps to put him back onto a path to world title contention, having struggled in the aftermath of his respective defeats to Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr in 2016 and 2017.
The former IBF welterweight champion took a couple of rounds to get into his stride as he looked to make a significant statement following a dire outing against Michael Zerafa in December, with a cagey opening lacking excitement.
However, he quickly gained complete control with the help of a number of short, jolting uppercuts that left DeLuca - a former US marine making a huge step up in quality in Sheffield - with blood gushing from a possibly broken nose.
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