Macklin wipes out Alcine

Birmingham Irishman Matthew Macklin needed just two minutes and 36 seconds to blast out Joachim Alcine and put himself back in the middleweight title picture in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Macklin was stopped in the eleventh round against world middleweight number one Sergio Martinez in March, but showed no signs of being gun shy on his return to action.

The 30-year-old pressed forwards from the off and soon a double jab punctuated by a hard right hand sent Alcine crashing to the ring apron.

Within seconds of Alcine, a former WBA light-middleweight champion, getting back to his feet, Macklin detonated a left hook which sent him back down again.

And with less than 30 seconds left on the clock in the opening round, Macklin forced the Haiti-born Canadian into a corner and pummelled him until referee Jay Nady decided he'd seen enough.

Macklin's record improved to 29 - 4 (20 KOs), while Alcine's dropped to 33 - 3 - 1 (19 KOs).