PITTSBURGH -- Unbeaten Paul Spadafora successfully defended his IBF lightweight title Friday night, stopping Australian Renato Cornett in the 11th round in the city's first championship bout in 18 years.

The fight at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center was stopped by a doctor 52 seconds into the 11th round after Cornett's face was a bloody mess from a brutal beating by Spadafora, who improved to 28-0 with 14 knockouts. The referee was Rick Steigerwald of Pittsburgh, on the advice of ringside physician Dr.Lawrence Biskin.

At the time of the stoppage, all three judges -- Tony Wolfe, of Pennsylvania, Mike Ancona, of Ohio, and Luis Pabon, of Puerto Rico -- had Spadafora ahead 100-90.

Cornett had a deep gash over his eye and his nose bled heavily.

Nicknamed the "Pittsburgh Kid," the 24-year-old Spadafora, 134½ pounds, fought Cornett, 34, just as he had past opponents: with an artful combination of precise jabs and an elusive, quick defense. Spadafora also baited Cornett, 134 pounds, into walking into powerful hook combinations to the head.

"I was ahead of him the whole time. It was easy to time him," Spadafora said.

"This is the biggest day of my life," he added. "Now it's over and we go on to the next thing. I'm the Pittsburgh Kid. I'm from Pittsburgh, I'm not going anywhere else. I'm going to keep the title here."

The fight clearly turned Spadafora's way in the seventh round. Midway through it he locked Cornett into a corner and landed a series of combinations to the head and body that staggered him.

By the 10th round, Cornett's face was bloody from Spadafora's relentless attack.

"It was a tough fight. He's hard to line up and he just keeps coming at you. He's going to go a long way," Cornett said.

Wearing the black and gold of Pittsburgh's sports teams, Spadafora stepped into the ring to chants of "Spady, Spady" from the sellout crowd of 5,000.

Spadafora won the championship in August, making him the first champion from Pittsburgh since Hall of Famer Billy Conn held the light heavyweight title in 1941 and Fritzie Zivic held the welterweight title the same year. Zivic lost his title several months after Conn relinquished his title to fight Joe Loius.

This was Cornett's second loss in a championship bout. He is 30-3-1.

Joel Perez fought on the undercard Friday, stopping John Lark of Gary, Ind., at 1:46 of the 10th round to improve to 27-3-2. This was an official IBF eliminator since the No. 2 spot in the rankings behind No. 1 Billy Irwin was vacant. The IBF stated that whenever there is a vacant spot in the rankings and two men in the Top 15 fight each other, the winner gets that spot. Going into the fight, Perez was No. 9, Lark No. 14.

It was a slow fight and going into the 10th and final round, Lark led 86-85 on two cards, while Perez was ahead 88-84 on the third card. A series of right-hand punches hurt Lark and the referee stopped that fight at 1.46 of the 10th round.

Joe Mesi of Buffalo, N.Y., stopped former Pittsburgh resident Gary Winmon at 2:09 of the first round of their heavyweight bout. Winmon had won 12 straight fights after sitting out more than two years while he was in prison. Mesi improved to 15-0 with 13 KOs.

Winmon never landed a telling punch as Mesi attacked with several damaging right hands and dropped Winmon along the ropes. When Winmon got up, Mesi pounded Winmon in his (Winmon's) own corner until the referee stopped it at 2.09 of the first round.

In other fights: Willie Phillips, 247 pounds, Sharon, Pa., knocked out Carlton Johnson, 224 pounds, Donora, Pa., who could not come out for the fourth round; Jermell Barnes, 192 pounds, Rochester, NY, won a six-round unanimous decision (58-56, 58-56, 59-55) over Britton Thomas, 196.75 pounds, Trenton, NJ; Scott McCracken, 139.75 pounds, Aliquippa, Pa., won a four-round unanimous decision (40-36, 40-36, 40-36) over Matthew Hill, 137.75 pounds, Reistertown, Md.; Sam Aspiotis, 145.5 pounds, Pittsburgh, won a four-round unanimous decision (40-35, 40-35, 40-35) over Dave Thomas, 139, Altoona, Pa.; Rich Felsing, 144.25 pounds, scored a knockout at 1.31 of the third round over Dennis Burley, 147.5 pounds, Scranton, Pa.