Ben Whittaker got a good eight rounds in without adding too much to his highlight reel of unorthodox moves.
It initially looked like Whittaker could take out Leon Willings early when dropping him in the first. However, Willings survived and eventually landed a few blows on the elusive former Team GB star.
“The Surgeon” was simply too good, as predicted pre-fight, and won every round in second gear on his way to a decision triumph.
Before Whittaker, a cruiserweight scuffle featuring three of the top UK contenders erupted as the Sky Sports cameras attempted to conduct an interview.
In the aftermath of Viddal Riley beating Mikael Lawal on points, Isaac Chamberlain and Cheavon Clarke were due to speak on camera to Sky Sports.
Things got a little hairy between the pair as Ben Shalom tried to stir up interest in his stable of 200-pounders.
Chamberlain had his chance to speak, but when Clarke was ushered in, a shoving match broke out and threatened to get out of hand until the cameras finally panned away.
What happened next is yet to be uncovered. Whatever it was, Sky didn’t return to Riley, Chamberlain, or Clarke to finish the segment as security struggled to deal with the melee.
Before all that, the English cruiserweight champion successfully defended his title. However, Riley’s performance led to more questions than answers.
Riley stayed out of trouble for the most part and landed enough punches to take the rounds without setting the world alight. Compubox confirmed this by saying: “Riley spent the entire fight circling around the perimeter of the ring, landing the occasional pot-shot while Lawal followed Riley around, but never cut off the ring.
“Lawal landed five punches or less in 7 of the ten rounds. Riley was more active and slightly more effective, landing nine or more punches in 5 of the ten rounds. ”
After the ten rounds had elapsed, Riley kept his belt.
Earlier, Callum Simpson moved closer to a domestic super middleweight clash with Zak Chelli after a one-punch knockout of Dulla Mbabe. Simpson connected in the fourth round after softening Mbabe up for the first three sessions.
Once down, Mbabe wanted no part of what Simpson was dishing out and was counted out on his backside.
Alen Babic recovered from a first-round knockout at the hands of WBC bridgerweight champion Lukasz Rozanski to get back in the win column. Giving away 22 pounds to ‘Disney Drago’ Steve Robinson, Babic had the upper hand from the first bell.
Furthermore, Robinson took far too many heavy shots and lacked defense throughout the fight. In the end, the fight was stopped in the sixth round. Babic improves to 12-1.
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