A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:

Saturday at Inglewood, Calif.

Joe Smith Jr. TKO8 Bernard Hopkins -- Fight recap

Light heavyweight

Records: Smith Jr. (23-1, 19 KOs); Hopkins (55-8-2, 32 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: All good things must come to an end, and that includes the legendary 28-year career of Hopkins, the record-setting former undisputed middleweight champion, three-time light heavyweight titleholder, oldest fighter to win a world title (at 46 and then again at 48) and automatic first-ballot Hall of Famer. A month shy of his 52nd birthday, Philadelphia's Hopkins was attempting to return from a 25-month layoff following his unification loss to Sergey Kovalev by taking on young, hungry Smith, who had upset contender Andrzej Fonfara by first-round knockout in June. Hopkins, wanting to go out on his own terms, promised win, lose or draw this would be his final fight. So he did get to go out with his carefully planned finale, but the end was anything but what he had hoped for.

Instead of beating Smith, the 27-year-old underdog from New York's Long Island, Hopkins found himself in a dog fight with a busier, more aggressive opponent who was not even born when Hopkins turned pro. After seven close rounds, Smith was up 69-64 and 67-66 on two scorecards and Hopkins was up 67-66 on the third card when Smith landed a six-punch flurry that sent Hopkins out of the ring and crashing to The Forum floor in the eighth round. Having bonked his head and hurt his ankle, Hopkins was unable to beat the 20-count from referee Jack Reiss, and the fight -- and his career was over -- at 53 seconds in the eighth. It was a huge win for Smith and sent "The Executioner" into retirement with the first stoppage loss of his glorious career.

Joeseph Diaz Jr. W10 Horacio Garcia

Featherweight

Scores: 100-90 on all three cards

Records: Diaz Jr. (23-0, 13 KOs); Garcia (30-2-1, 22 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Diaz, a 23-year-old southpaw from South El Monte, California, is moving along nicely as a pro following his participation in the 2012 Olympics. He had no issues against Garcia, 26, of Mexico, in the shutout decision win. Garcia was game and made for an action-packed fight, but Diaz was better in every aspect. He was faster, displayed superior skills and landed way more punches (266 to 116, per CompuBox) than Garcia. Diaz, who went 4-0 this year, is probably on his way to a world-title shot. His biggest weakness is simply that he is not much of a puncher. Besides that, he has everything it takes to win a title.

Oleksandr Usyk TKO9 Thabiso Mchunu -- Fight recap

Retains a cruiserweight title

Records: Usyk (11-0, 10 KOs); Mchunu (17-3, 11 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: After a slow start that had the crowd booing, Usyk, making his first title defense and his United States debut, began to warm up and get into the groove against fellow southpaw Mchunu, 28, of South Africa, in a one-sided victory. With his promoter Vitali Klitschko at ringside, Usyk, 29, who was the 2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist for Ukraine, scored three knockdowns, including one with a left uppercut in the sixth round and then two more in the ninth round with left hands, the second of which promoted referee Lou Moret to stop the bout at 1 minute, 53 seconds. Usyk may have underwhelmed compared to expectations, but it was a solid win that probably paved the way for his next defense, which will take place March 18 in New York on the HBO PPV undercard of the Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs fight.

Saturday at Saint-Denis, France

Hassan N'Dam KO1 Alfonso Blanco

Wins an interim middleweight title

Records: N'Dam (35-2, 21 KOs); Blanco (12-1, 5 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Massive knockout of the year alert! This one was absolutely sick! Blanco, 30, of Venezuela, may have been the most obscure titleholder in boxing. Fourteen months ago, he outpointed Ukraine's Sergey Khomitsky to win a vacant interim belt. Then he made his first defense against former world titleholder N'Dam, 32, a Cameroon native based in France, and it was over in 21 seconds. N'Dam, one of the few pros to fight in the 2016 Olympics (where he stunningly lost his opening bout), absolutely annihilated Blanco. He blinded him with a left jab and then followed with a flush-as-could-be right hand bang on the point of the chin. Blanco never knew what hit him. He was out cold upon impact of the punch, and fell face first without breaking his fall. When he hit the mat his body was literally twitching and referee Gustavo Padilla immediately stopped the fight without a count.

Lightweight Yuriorkis Gamboa (25-1, 17 KOs), 34, a former unified featherweight titlist, was scheduled to end one year of inactivity against former junior lightweight titlist Malcolm Klassen (33-6-2, 17 KOs), 35, of South Africa, on the undercard. However, the Miami-based Cuban defector Gamboa was 2.2 pounds overweight and the fight was canceled.

Saturday at Ekaterinburg, Russia

Alexander Povetkin KO6 Johann Duhaupas

Heavyweight

Records: Povetkin (31-1, 23 KOs); Duhaupas (34-4, 21 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: That this fight took place is a grotesque example that sometimes anything goes in boxing. The Russian regulators should be ashamed, but they have no shame, so they allowed a juiced-up Povetkin, 37, of Russia, to face Duhaupas, 35, of France, and he brutally knocked him unconscious. Povetkin was allowed to fight despite having failed his second Voluntary Anti-Doping Association drug test in seven months, this time testing positive for the banned muscle building substance ostarine days before the fight. Povetkin was supposed to face former world titleholder Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) for the vacant WBC interim title, made available because of titleholder Deontay Wilder's hand and biceps injury. However, about 20 hours before the fight, Povetkin's dirty test result was revealed and the WBC rightfully pulled its sanction, which in turn led to Stiverne electing not to fight because the belt -- the reason he took the fight -- was not on the line.

So instead Povetkin faced Duhaupas, a 2015 Wilder knockout victim, without a title at stake. Povetkin dominated the out of shape Duhaupas before severely knocking him out with a left hand to the chin. Duhaupas went down hard, slammed his head off the canvas and referee Hector Afu immediately stopped it at 2 minutes, 59 seconds. Everything about this stinks.

Saturday at Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico

Ramon Alvarez TKO4 Matthew Strode

Junior middleweight

Records: Alvarez (24-5-2, 16 KOs); Strode (24-4, 9 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Alvarez, 30, of Mexico, the older brother of junior middleweight titleholder Canelo Alvarez, had an easy time taking care of Strode, 34, of Greensboro, North Carolina, who lost his second fight in a row. Alvarez was in full control of the bout in the fourth round when he landed an overhand right that sent Strode staggering backward. Alvarez continued to fire away, unleashing around 15 unanswered punches until referee Mario Mena stepped in to wave off the fight at 1 minute, 41 seconds. Strode complained about the stoppage, but Mena had no choice with all of the shots Strode was taking.

Also on the card, up-and-coming southpaw bantamweight Luis "Pantera" Nery (22-0, 16 KOs), 21, of Mexico, survived a knockdown in the opening round but otherwise dominated the fight against the Philippines' Raymond Tabugon, 25, before pinning him along the ropes and teeing off on him until referee Celestino Castro stepped in at 2 minutes, 42 seconds. While Tabugon lost his third fight in a row and fourth of his last five, Nery moved closer to a possible shot against bantamweight world titleholder Shinsuke Yamanaka of Japan.

Friday at Indio, Calif.

Sullivan Barrera TKO7 Vyacheslov Shabranskyy -- Fight recap

Light heavyweight

Records: Barrera (18-1, 13 KOs); Shabranskyy (17-1, 14 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: The HBO Latino-televised main event was an exciting action fight that Barrera won impressively, to bounce back from his first defeat, a one-sided decision to Andre Ward, who went on to win three light heavyweight world title belts from Sergey Kovalev, in March. Although Shabranskyy, 29, a Ukraine native living in Los Angeles, dropped Barrera with a right hand in the second round, he was not badly hurt. But, in his first fight with new trainer Derik Santos, Barrera, 34, a Miami-based Cuban defector who was a star amateur, scored three knockdowns. He floored Shabranskyy in the first, fifth and seventh rounds before referee Ray Corona waved off the fight without a count at 2 minutes, 5 seconds of the seventh round.

Rashidi Ellis KO1 Eddie Gomez

Welterweight

Records: Ellis (17-0, 12 KOs); Gomez (19-2, 11 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Ellis, 23, of Boston, had what amounted to his coming-out party with this extremely impressive and explosive victory against Gomez, 24, of Bronx, New York, who barely knew what hit him. Saying he was motivated by the birth of his first child, a son, two weeks ago, Ellis destroyed Gomez in what was supposed to be an even match. He caught Gomez with a powerful right hand on the chin that dropped his opponent, and then landed another crushing right hand moments later, forcing referee Eddie Hernandez to wave off the fight without a count at 1 minute, 19 seconds.

Ronny Rios TKO6 Roy "Pitbull Tapia

Featherweight

Records: Rios (27-1, 12 KOs); Tapia (12-2-2, 6 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Fighting in front of a hometown crowd, Santa Ana, California contender Rios, 26, looked very sharp against Tapia, 25, of East Los Angeles. Rios maintained a relentless body attack against Tapia throughout the bout, and Tapia could not take the heat, ultimately quitting on his stool after the sixth round as Rios won his fourth fight in a row since an upset fifth-round knockout loss to Robinson Castellanos in October 2014.

Friday at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec

Jean Pascal TKO3 Ricardo Marcelo Ramallo

Cruiserweight

Records: Pascal (31-4-1, 18 KOs); Ramallo (21-11-1, 15 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: In January, former light heavyweight world champion Pascal, 34, of Montreal, took a shellacking in a seventh-round knockout loss to then-unified light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev in their rematch. Making his low-key return, Pascal easily took apart Ramallo, 33, of Argentina, who lost his second fight in a row. Pascal, in his first fight with new trainer Stephane Larouche -- his third trainer in as many bouts -- dropped Ramallo three times, with a right hand to the body in the second round, with a right hand to the head in the third round and again with a right to the head in the third, prompting referee Alain Villeneuve to call it off at 1 minute, 45 seconds. Pascal fought a bit over the light heavyweight limit at 181 pounds.