HAMBURG, Germany – Unbeaten Juan Carlos Gomez knocked out Ghana’s Napoleon Tagoe in the ninth round of a one-sided fight Saturday to retain his WBC cruiserweight title. The Cuban, who fights in Germany, caught Tagoe with a left uppercut, sending him to the canvas with 1:08 remaining in the round for the third time in the bout. Gomez, 29-0 with 24 knockouts, was making the sixth defense of the crown he won from Argentina’s Marcelo Dominguez on Feb. 21, 1998. Tagoe’s record fell to 19-4. Tagoe had earned the title bout by handing Cuba’s Ramon Garbey, a rival of Gomez in his amateur days, his first professional loss. But the 6-foot-4 Gomez dominated from the opening seconds, using his superior height and reach to pound Tagoe at will. The Cuban floored Tagoe in the fifth with another hard left that sent the African fighter stumbling into the ropes before going down. Tagoe also took a standing count in the seventh after he was dropped to one knee by another shot from Gomez.
