LONDON -- Dillian Whyte maintained his place at the heavyweight top table with a sixth-round knockout win over Lucas Browne on Saturday.
The Jamaica-born Londoner defended his No. 1 position in the WBC rankings after separating Browne from his senses with a perfect left hook at the O2 Arena in London.
Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) is also No. 4 with the IBF and WBO governing bodies' rankings, and this devastating finish was his best win yet.
Whyte, 29, remains first in line to fight WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs), but the American is also being linked with a title unification fight with the winner of Anthony Joshua versus Joseph Parker, who meet for the three other versions of the title next Saturday.
Whyte, who made a first defence of his secondary WBC Silver title against Australian Browne (25-1, 22 KOs), wants Wilder next.
"Wilder, where you at, June," Whyte said after.
"Let's go, I'm ready, let's get it on. Deontay, forget Joshua, he will not be ready in time. I'm No. 1, baby, let's go."
Browne needed treatment with an oxygen mask in the ring after being too easy of a target for Whyte.
Inactivity looked to have been costly for 38-year-old Browne. The former nightclub bouncer failed two drugs tests in 2016 and had boxed only once, nine months ago, since his career-best 10th-round win over Ruslan Chagaev in Russia.
Browne claimed a post-fight positive drug test -- for clenbuterol -- was due to spiked food or drink. He was given a six-month ban. Browne failed another test later in 2016 for ostarine, which was in an over-the-counter supplement.
This was Browne's first significant fight since Chagaev, while Whyte had built up some momentum with six wins since he was stopped in the seventh round by Joshua in December 2015.
Browne was fleshy and slow after the inactivity, which in-form Whyte took advantage of from the first round with punishing right hands. Browne started bleeding from his left eye from the end of the first round, and it got worse through the second, as Whyte found little difficulty in landing punches.
Whyte, who tested positive and served a ban for the stimulant methylhexaneamine in 2012, stunned Browne with a big right early in the third round, and his face was left covered in blood. Whyte also started throwing stinging left hooks in the third, before relying on his jab in the fourth round.
It was all Whyte, who started planting his feet and landing heavier blows in the fifth before a chilling left-hook KO finish 37 seconds into the sixth round.
Paramedics rushed into the ring to treat Browne, who was given oxygen for a few minutes before getting to his feet.
It was the best we have seen from Whyte, who was stopped in the seventh round by Joshua in December 2015. This performance showed that he has improved since then.
Promoter Eddie Hearn, who works for both Whyte and Joshua, said: "The fight is there for Wilder [against Whyte] in June, and he may have no choice. We have to force the shot, and I believe the WBC should make Dillian mandatory challenger after that performance. If he can be made mandatory challenger by the WBC, Wilder will have nowhere to go."
There was an upset on the undercard, as Callum Johnson stopped Frank Buglioni in the first round to add the British light-heavyweight title to his Commonwealth belt.