IT MIGHT have been 19 months between official bouts for Brad Morgan, but the Bendigo boxer showed he had lost none of his power and precision in the Philippines last week.
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The 25-year-old, who trains at the California Gully-based Vinton Street Gym (VSG), defeated seasoned Filipino fighter Elmer Colve via a second-round stoppage on a big-card at Calbayog City on Wednesday.
The victory was the seventh of Morgan's professional career from seven bouts, and his sixth via knock-out.
Morgan had not stepped into the ring for a sanctioned bout since his knock-out win over Thai fighter Worraphon Jesadajindawat on a VSG Promotions show at the Bendigo Exhibition Centre in March last year.
The undefeated super-lightweight said he was rapt to emerge with another impressive record, to keep his undefeated streak intact.
"It's a good feeling to be 7-0 an a good experience going over to Asia again," said Morgan, who has now fought in Asia on three occasions.
"He was a very experienced fighter, but he just couldn't stand up to my power in the end.
"I trained very hard for it and lost a lot of weight to get down to the weight division. I had to make a lot of sacrifices and wasn't leaving any stone unturned."
Morgan revealed the log gap between fights (he last fought an exhibition bout against fellow VSG professional Dino Rafaeles in Bendigo in March), had required him to shed plenty of weight in the weeks before the trip to the Philippines.
"Because I'd had nearly two years off, I put on nearly 14kgs, but when I heard I was fighting again I thought I'd better start cutting back on the take-away and get serious," he said.
"But while I let myself go a little bit, I was still training hard every day, it was more about toning up and cutting back on the food."
Morgan, who debuted in the professional ranks with a knock-out win against Joel Bennett at Bendigo Stadium in November 2015, ranked his win over Colve as one of his more impressive victories.
"It was probably the second quickest finish to a fight for me. The first one was the quickest one I've had, it was all over in about a minute and 20 seconds," he said.
"This fighter was very experienced and it took me at least a round to work him out.
"He had fractured ribs and a fair bit of concussion, which is sad, but that's boxing for you."
More than 6500 fans crammed into the Calbayog City Sports Centre to watch the action.
Morgan is aiming to return to the ring as early as January and hopes his continued unblemished record will soon see him contention for some form of title shot.
The father of the two daughters already boasts one title win, with his 2018 victory over Jesadajindawat snaring him a WBF Australasia title.
"Ideally I'd like to do a training camp somewhere and get some more experience under the belt and then hopefully start working my way up the Australian ranks," Morgan said.
"Hopefully I can get that (title) opportunity in Australia, or overseas. Anywhere would be good."
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