Hometown support and a will to succeed seemed to have re-energised 41-year-old Devon Moncriffe to his explosive best to put his Team Canada opponent Waseem El Senawi down twice to bring Team Jamaica level with Team Canada 1-1 in the quarter-finals of the Wray & Nephew White Overproof Contender Boxing Series at the Chinese Benevolent Association on Wednesday night.

The second drop was a rude awakening for the brash El Senawi as he was counted out flat on his backside at 2:50 minutes of the fourth round of five. The knockout victory was timely and reassuring for Team Jamaica after they had entered the semi-final stage of the championship trailing 0-1 upon losing the opening quarter-final match to Team Canada the previous week.

The fight was the finest seen all season, after 10 fights of 15, and Moncriffe was at his best since lifting the Contender title back in 2013 when he outpointed Tsetsi “Lights Out” Davis over 10 rounds in the final.

With Michael “Wasp” Gardener having weighed himself out of contention for championship honours, the mantle lies with Moncriffe to carry the hopes of Team Jamaica.

From the opening bell on Wednesday, Moncriffe set about to get under the long reaches of El Senawi and beat the body. The Canadian’s midsection, therefore, came in for some heavy punishment. This early onslaught seemed to have the El Senawi backing up after realising that Moncriffe was no chicken and he really packs a wallop.

This, from all indications, weakened the resolve of El Senawi, whose longer reaches when connected had little or no effect on his opponent, and when it did, it only incensed his Team Jamaica opponent.

Moncriffe said afterwards that he achieved his pre-match objectives.

“I entered the ring with one thing on my mind — to knock him out. I did not want to play around with anybody, so I was ready from the time I entered the ring. When I jabbed he started to go back, so I said to myself if I throw the right he will go farther back.’ So when I throw the first and it connected he turned over, so I say yes that is one.

“I continued throwing it (and) when I throw the next one on him he went down. Then I said to myself ‘that’s it, he can’t come back’,” said Moncriffe.

After his humiliation of being knocked off his feet, El Senawi refused to talk with the Jamaica Observer, saying: “I have no comment.”