Fighter of the Week (1/29-2/4): Khalil Coe

On a weekend that was supposed to showcase the comeback of rising British KO artist Conor Benn did not live up to expectations. As Benn looks to be fading, Khalil "Big Stppa" Coe, who fought on the undercard, appears to be emerging. Coe, a 27-year-old Light heavyweight from Flemington, New Jersey, got his career off to a bit of a sluggish start. However, he has completely flipped that script, scoring the biggest win of his career by knocking out the 20-0 (18) Juan Gerardo Osuna, a highly touted Mexican KO artist, to move his record to 8-0-1 (6), establish himself as a legitimate contender at 175-pounds and take home out Fighter of the Week Award for the first time in his career.

The New Jersey native has fought heavily on the front foot and off the back foot at different points in his career. It would make sense that he would take the back foot against the Mexican KO artist he was squaring off with. Coe opted to do the exact opposite and established his jab early and had Osuna going backward. Refusing to give ground, Coe was firing off the jab that seemed to affect Osuna every time it landed. With under a minute left in the opening round, Coe drove his opponent into the ropes and ripped away at his body. Just seconds into the second, a right hand snapped the head back of the Mexican. A right hand to the body just seconds later put Osuna down for the first time. Never fully recovered, a game Osuna got to his feet, but another glancing right hand to the body dropped him again. A jab to the body put him down for a third and final time as the count was waved off, and Coe was Awarded the 2nd round TKO 75 seconds into the round.

Touted undefeated prospects dont usually face off this early in their career, because of the risk involved. We saw that on display Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas, as Coe went on to the next step, he knocked Osuna into irrelevance, and he will likely not be becoming out of that status in the forseeable future. Coe now will have some intriguing. Would Eddie Hearn be willing to put his Light Heavyweight prospect in the ring with someone at the level of a Charles Foster or a Lyndon Arthur? If so, and if Coe comes out on the right side of the matchup, which he certainly has the ability to do, he could find himself in the world title picture by the end of 2024, and that draw with Aaron Casper seems like ancient history.