MONTREAL — Dzmitry Asanau lived up to his billing as "The Wasp" with his high work rate taking care of Francesco Patera by 10-round unanimous decision to retain his WBC Continental Americas lightweight title at the Montreal Casino, Montreal, on Thursday night, on ESPN+

Asanau (10-0, 4 knockouts), a former amateur standout, who holds wins over Albert Batrygaziev, Lazaro Alvarez and Sofiane Oumiha, in the unpaid ranks, has been a professional since 2022 and now appears to have settled into the professional ranks.

The Belarus-born fighter used a steady jab and his skills of hand and foot to good affect and was rewarded with a 100-90x2, 98-92 decision on the scorecards.

"I'm not going to say I'm ready for big titles but give me some [more] fights like this and why not," Asanau said. "100 percent, I trust my team to be very fresh in the ring for 10-rounds because I never did it and I need to do it."

Asanau used his footwork and quick hands to keep Patera (30-6, 11 KOs) at bay. The visitor fought well and pressed the action throughout but had no answer to Asanau's accuracy.

Neither fighter was hurt but the fight was at a good pace. Asanau simply outworked Patera, who is a former European lightweight champion, who took recently minted WBO 135-pound boss Keyshawn Davis in 2023.

Later when Asanau was asked about the future he named a possible opponent.

"This one guy, everyone is talking about him," he said. "He fought with [WBC titlist] Shakur [Stevenson,] [Josh] Padley come to Montreal!"

His promoter, Camille Estephan, the Eye of The Tiger President was suitably impressed.

"When we signed him we were told he's a little [Dmitry] Bivol and he really is," said Estephan. "He has technical skills that are exemplary, he wants to put on a show. When he sits with his punches you can see he has it.

"He is a guy that has a lot of upside. This was only his 10th fight. If we keep in the groove we'll see more from him. We want to keep him active, we're going to go a step up from Patera. In two or three fights, we're ready to fight any of the champions."