There was disappointment for fellow Briton Connor Hughes, though, as he was stopped in the fourth round of his lightweight title bout with Poland’s Jakub Kaszuba.
Liverpool’s Hughes started brightly, dropping his 29-year-old opponent in the first round with a left hook and again in the second with an uppercut.
But Kaszuba, last year’s champion, took control in the third, landing a takedown early in the round and controlling the action on the ground with a number of elbows.
The same pattern followed in the fourth round as he took the fight to the ground again, attacking relentlessly with elbows, before the referee stepped in to end the contest.
Kaszuba joked “give me more elbows” in his post-fight interview, before revealing he fought with torn ligaments in his leg, which “was painful despite the adrenaline”.
While he extended his unbeaten record to 15 by retaining his title, the 27-year-old Hughes suffered the second defeat of his 12-fight career.
