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Brian Magee successfully defended his WBA interim super-middleweight belt as he stopped Denmark's Rudy Markussen in five rounds on Saturday night.

After an even opening four rounds, Magee suddenly floored his opponent in the fifth by delivering a fierce left hook to the body.

Markussen threw a couple of big right hands in the opening round before Magee responded with power in round two.

The scorecards were level when the contest was stopped.

Magee, 36, will hope that his victory could earn him another crack at one of the major world super-middleweight belts.

The Belfastman was stopped in an IBF title challenge by Lucian Bute last March

Andre Ward is currently rated as the WBA's super champion as he also holds the WBC belt with Karoly Balzsay the champion and Magee the interim title holder.

Magee's victory improves his record to 36 wins in 41 fights.

Markussen was suffering his third defeat in 40 contests.

The Dane's two previous defeats included an IBF super-middleweight challenge against Sven Ottke in 2002 when he was outpointed.

Markussen, 34, went on to lift the European title two years later when he beat Germany's Danilo Haussler but took over three years out from the sport after suffering the second defeat of his career when knocked out by Sergey Tatevosyan in 2006.

He resumed his career in May 2010 and had put together four stoppage wins since then.