WINNIPEG -- A stronger, faster Virgil Hill gave a boxing lesson Saturday night and threw the first pail of cold water on Donny Lalonde's comeback dream of winning another world championship.

Lalonde, who is 43 and now has a record of 41-5-1, lost the first of his four fights since he decided to return to the ring last year. Hill, 39, extended his record to 49-4 with the 10-round unanimous decision.

Both were world light heavyweight champions at the same time in the 1980s in the rival WBC and WBA boxing federations but had never met in the ring until Saturday, when they fought as cruiserweights.

Lalonde took a standing eight count in the first round, despite his protests to referee that his fall into the ropes was more bad footwork than the stiff left hook Hill had sent into the side of his head.

He didn't have a really good round until the fourth, spending much of his time backpedalling and looking for a chance to land his trademark right hand. He also landed a few good punches in the seventh.

But Hill, the more classical fighter of the two, offered few opportunities as he connected with a barrage of jabs and hooks.

Lalonde lost his world title to Sugar Ray Leonard in 1988 and never won another. In making his third comeback attempt, Lalonde has said he wanted to better George Foreman by becoming the oldest fighter to win a world title.

Hill, 39, lost his title at about the same time to Thomas Hearns but came back to win a couple more and with 20 title defenses ranks as one of the most active champions ever.

He has fought -- and usually won -- consistently since turning pro in 1984 after winning a silver at the Olympics.

He last won a world title just three years ago when he took the WBA cruiserweight belt from Fabrice Tizzo in France with a first-round knockout, showing punching power that surprised many.

He lost it last year to Jean Marc Mormeck, also in France.

In the wonderful world of boxing initials, Hill still holds the less highly regarded IBC cruiserweight title.

In a preliminary bout, Canadian lightweight champion Billy Irwin stopped Canada's super lightweight champion Mark Riggs in the first-round with two punishing left hooks that sent him to the canvas.

The second put the younger Winnipeg boxer down with such speed his head hit the planks with a sickening thud and he stayed there for several minutes, before rising to a round of applause.

It was a non-title fight that left Irwin, 35, who fights out of Niagara Falls, Ont., at 42-5 with 30 knockouts. Riggs, 32, suffered his first-ever loss and has a record of 24-1.

Irwin said the first left hook, which dropped Irwin to his knees, did the job.

"I knew the fight was over," he said. "That's my favorite punch."

The second left hook followed perhaps 20 seconds later at 1:44 of the first round of what supposed to be a 10-round fight.

He gave Riggs credit.

"He's my size and he comes forward . . . he's good for the sport."

Kingsley Ikeke, a former Canadian boxer who now fights out of Los Angeles scored a super middleweight win over Willard Lewis of Hobema, Alta, in the third round with a technical knockout when Lewis suffered a suspected broken rib.

The lanky Ikeke, 30, improved to 17-1 while Lewis, 28, fell to 17-8-2.

In another preliminary, female boxer Jo-Anne Brooks of Winnipeg extended her professional record to 3-0 with a four-round unanimous decision over Leona Richardson of Toronto, who was making her pro debut.

Richardson gave Brooks one of her toughest fights so far, standing toe-to-toe and exchanging punches. Neither fighter went down or even seemed to be in serious trouble, except perhaps from the heat under a blazing late afternoon sun.

The fight was held outdoors at CanWest Global Park, a baseball field in downtown Winnipeg, with seats 3,500 and 4,000.