France’s Bakary Samake notched an eighth-round knockout of South Africa’s Roarke Knapp, dispatching him with left hooks to the body in their junior middleweight bout in front of 38,500 spectators at the sold-out La Defense Arena in Paris on Friday.

Samake-Knapp was the preliminary act ahead of a concert from rap artist Gazo. The crowd was nevertheless reported to be happy with the boxing match, and the 21-year-old Samake, 18-0 (10 KOs) earned many new fans.

Knapp dropped to 17-3-1 (12 KOs).