By Jake Donovan

Adonis Stevenson scored a monster 1st round knockout to emphatically dethrone Chad Dawson in their light heavyweight championship contest Saturday evening in Montreal, Canada. 

A left hook put Dawson down roughly a minute into the fight. The reigning light heavyweight king managed to beat the count, but was on unsteady legs the entire team, prompting referee Michael Griffin to stop the contest without another punch being thrown.

The official time was 1:16 of round one.

Stevenson improves to 21-1 (18KO), coming up huge in his first world title fight.

Dawson suffers his second straight knockout loss, falling to 31-3 (17KO). The fight was his first since a humbling stoppage loss at the hands of super middleweight king Andre Ward last September. 

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board, Yahoo Boxing Ratings Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox