COPENHAGEN (Denmark), Feb 24: American boxer Robert Guerrero recaptured the IBF featherweight title he lost last year when he defeated Denmark's Spend Abazi with an eighth-round technical knockout on Friday.

After the eighth round, the ring doctor stopped the fight because Abazi had bleeding around the right eye from a hit in the second round.

“The blood bothered me, it was OK to stop,” Abazi said. “I did what I could.”

The left-handed Guerrero knocked down the Albanian-born Abazi in the third and fifth rounds at Falconer Centre, and easily kept the home fighter at bay in his first bout overseas.

“He put up a real good fight, I was surprised,” Guerrero said after ending Abazi's 20-fight winning run.

Guerrero improved to 20-2-1. Abazi fell to 35-1-1.

Guerrero lost the title to Mexico's Orlando Salido on Nov 4 but the Nevada Athletic Commission suspended Salido after he tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone, and the title became vacant.—AP