COALISLAND middleweight Conrad Cummings scored an impressive knockout on the undercard of Carl Frampton’s second defence of his IBF super bantamweight title in El Paso, Texas.

In what was his seventh professional fight, the Tyrone man stopped Oscar Riojas, his toughest opponent to date, midway through the second with a big right hand.

After the win, Cummings heaped praise on coach Shane McGuigan when speaking to David Kelly of the Belfast Telegraph, explaining “I have to thank Shane a lot because after losing the first round I could have panicked a bit but he kept me calm and told me that the finish would come, I just had to be patient and that’s what happened.”

Promotor Blaine McGuigan was quick to point out to the Belfast Telegraph that Cummings is now ready to take a further step up in class, saying that “I thought Conrad was really controlled and you have to remember this guy had been twelve rounds. We hope to get him out in September and it’s time for titles!”

McGuigan continued: “This was a six rounder but he had been training for eight, so now we can jump to ten rounds and we can look at the vacant Irish or Celtic middleweight title. There’s plenty of good guys around in Britain for Conrad to fight, so we’ll see what we can do and when Conrad goes to ten rounds he has much more of an advantage because of his engine.”

Whatever title he aims for, and whoever he fights, it promises to be an exciting few months for Cummings who has now graduated from the prospect stage of his career with top marks.