Efe Ajagba continues to move in the right direction.
The 6-foot-6 heavyweight contender knocked out solid, but overmatched opponent Joseph Goodall at 50 seconds of the fourth round on Saturday night in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
The Texas-based native of Nigeria has now won four consecutive fights since he lost a one-sided decision against slick Frank Sanchez in October 2021.
The man is a threat 😤 @AjagbaEfe pic.twitter.com/jtv0j2b17e
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) November 5, 2023
Ajagba (19-1, 14 KOs) controlled the fight on Saturday from the outset, starting with his stiff, consistent jab and following with more and more power shots as the fight progressed.
He rocked Goodall (10-2-1, 9 KOs) with a right uppercut midway through Round 3 and continued to pound the Aussie thereafter.
Goodall was absorbing a flurry of hard, unanswered punches with his back against the ropes when referee Tony Weeks stepped in to save the underdog from undue punishment.
Ajagba was only two fights removed from a close, less-than-impressive decision over clever Stephan Shaw in January.
That was followed by a fourth-round disqualification victory in August over Zhan Kossobutskiy, who also was overmatched against the improving Ajagba.
Ajagba said after stopping Goodall that he finally feels 100% — physically and in terms of confidence — since having double elbow surgery after the setback against Sanchez.
“It’s been long,” he said. “I was out of boxing for a long time. When I came back with Stephzn Shaw, my confidence was not there. I had just come back from surgery, and I had to get back into shape.
“But right now, I came back with full confidence. That’s why I took him out,” he went on. “[My team] pushed me in training camp. They made me work extremely hard in this camp to make sure I win the fight. I sparred a lot of different guys to make me stay strong.”
Ajagaba believes he’s ready to fight anyone going forward.
“Whoever they offer me to fight, I’m ready to go,” he said. “I will go back with my team to talk about that.”
