TORONTO: Canada’s Adonis Stevenson retained his WBC light heavyweight title with a third round stoppage of Tommy Karpency in the first world title fight in Toronto in more than three decades.

Southpaw Stevenson wobbled the American challenger at the end of the second round, then closed the deal early in the third on Friday night at the Ricoh Coliseum.

Stevenson, who improved to 27-1, hopes the win puts him in line for a unification title fight with undefeated WBA and IBF champ Sergey Kovalev.

It was the first world title fight in Toronto since June 1984, when Aaron (The Hawk) Pryor beat Nicky Furlano for the IBF welterweight title at Varsity Stadium.

The card was promoted by former Canadian Olympic gold medallist and ex-world champion Lennox Lewis, who along with Montreal-based promoter Yvon Michel is trying to bring championship boxing back to Toronto.

Karpency, a former nurse in a psychiatric hospital, had fought once before for a world title when he lost to Nathan Cleverly in 2012 for the WBO light heavyweight crown. Karpency dropped to 25-5-1.

Not surprisingly, Stevenson entered the ring to the theme from “Superman,” which is also his nickname.

Stevenson slammed a left to the chin of Karpency at the end of the second round, knocking down the American, who was eventually saved by the bell.

He wasted no time getting back to work in the third, finishing off the challenger just 21 seconds in.

Also on the card, Errol Spence pounded South-African-born welterweight Chris van Heerden en route to an eighth-round technical knockout.

Canadian Donovan (Razor) Ruddock, who is trying to make a boxing comeback at age 51, was given a reality check as he was impressively knocked out by Dillon Carman in the third round of their heavyweight bout.

The former world title contender Ruddock retired in 2001 but returned to the ring earlier this year, winning two straight fights.

Putin gives Roy Jones Jr. Russian citizenship

Vladimir Putin has given Russian citizenship to former world heavyweight boxing champion Roy Jones Jr.

A decree published on the Kremlin’s website in the Russian president’s name Saturday said the American, a four-weight champion once regarded by many as the world’s best boxer, had been given Russian nationality.

Jones asked Putin for citizenship in August over a cup of tea when they met in Crimea — the territory annexed by Russia last year — saying it would make doing business in Russia much easier.

Putin said this would be possible if Jones planned to spend a significant part of his life in Russia, while the boxer said he hoped sport could help “build a bridge” between the US and Russia.

After the decree was published, Jones told Russian news agency R-Sport that he planned to learn the Russian language.

“I want to speak so well in Russian that people understand me without any problems,” Jones said. “I think that’ll take about a year. I hope that next year I’ll already be speaking like a Russian.”

He added that he now wanted to “earn two or three billion dollars,” open boxing schools in Russia and develop his rap career.

Still fighting at cruiserweight against mostly little-known opponents, the 46-year-old Jones has competed three times in Russia in the last five years, most recently knocking out Egyptian fighter Hany Atiyo last year in the southern city of Krasnodar.

While Jones insists he has no plans to hang up his gloves and still wants to win a world title, he has also begun working as a trainer for Russian fighters — including unbeaten WBA super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov and his brother, ex-WBA interim middleweight champion Dmitry Chudinov.