Abdullah Mason defended his WBO lightweight title with a 12th-round TKO victory over Albert Bell on Saturday night at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland.
Fighting in front of his hometown fans, Mason, from nearby Bedford, Ohio, struggled to get inside during the first half of the fight and was behind one scorecard and even on the other two through the first six rounds. But he recovered late and finished strong, dropping Bell twice in the 12th round, both times with left hooks to the head.
Referee Mark Nelson immediately stopped the fight without a count at the 45-second mark of the round.
Mason (21-0, 18 KOs) was ahead 106-103, 107-102 and 107-102 entering the 12th.
Bell, of Toledo, Ohio, suffered the first loss of his career. He admitted the first knockdown hurt him but said he wanted the chance to finish the fight.
"The stoppage at the end, he buzzed me with the first one," said Bell, a friend and former sparring partner of Mason. "The second one was just more of an aftereffect. I felt like it was too fast. Let me finish. It's the 12th round. It was a hard fight. Let me go on my shield if that's the case."
Bell (28-1, 9 KOs) slowed Mason with his jab and movement, but everything changed after the sixth round, when Mason's body attack began to take its toll. Bell was a late replacement for Joe Cordina, who was denied a visa to the United States after being charged with assault June 25.
Mason, ESPN's No. 4-ranked lightweight, was making the first defense of the title he won by unanimous decision over Sam Noakes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November.
"We had a game plan," Mason said during the postfight interview. "I was kind of shy to go upstairs for most of the fight. My brothers was telling me, 'Go to that body.' I wanted to get him out of there to the body, but they had told me late that I was down on the cards when I wasn't.
"And I just went upstairs, and that's how we got him out of there."