Boxing legend Muhammad Ali waves to a cheering audience as he arrives to watch his daughter Laila Ali fight in the WBC super middleweight women’s championship at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday. (Reuters)

New York: Vladimir Klitschko of Ukraine retained the International Boxing Federation heavyweight world title on Saturday when he stopped previously unbeaten challenger Calvin Brock in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden.

Brock crumpled to the canvas after taking a devastating right-hand punch to the jaw. The American rose to his feet after the count but was so wobbly that referee Wayne Kelly waved an end to the scheduled 12-round bout at 2:10 of the seventh.

“It was a left hook, straight right combination,” Klitschko told reporters. “I should have landed it that way earlier in the fight. But it took that much time to get my rhythm and distance. He’s a good defensive fighter.”

Klitschko, 30, improved to 47-3 with 42 of his wins coming within the distance.

The 31-year-old Brock, a member of the 2000 US Olympic boxing team, suffered his first defeat after winning his opening 29 professional bouts.

Earlier, Muhammad Ali returned to Madison Square Garden to cheers of “Ali, Ali, Ali” and watched his daughter Laila defend her world super middleweight title.

The cheers continued for Laila, who used a left-right combination to bust the nose of challenger Shelley Burton in the fourth round, retain her WBC women’s crown and improve her record to 23-0.

Minutes before her fight, Ali and his entourage entered the famed arena, the former world champion looking frail and shaking violently from his Parkinson’s disease.

When the fighter known simply as “The Greatest” was spotted the crowd of 14,260 began the familiar chant, which grew until it thundered through the building where 35 years ago Ali fought the first of three epic battles against “Smokin” Joe Frazier.

With his fourth wife, Lonnie, at his side, and longtime friend and companion Howard Bingham and Arthur Mercante Sr., the referee from that first Ali-Frazier clash among the retinue, mobs of fans clustered around trying to get a close look at Ali and using their cell phones to capture his image.

Celebrities also flocked to his side, including the actor Dustin Hoffman, who sat beside the former champion and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Meanwhile, Klitschko was making the first defence of the IBF and International Boxing Organization (IBO) crowns he won by stopping American Chris Byrd in the seventh round last April in Mannheim, Germany.

The 6-foot-6 Klitschko, who had a four-inch height and reach advantage, relied on his stinging jab in the early rounds while Brock countered with left and right hooks to the body.