Cruiserweight Lawrence Okolie marked a successful return to Sky Sports with a comfortable twelve-round win against New Zealand’s David Light on Saturday.
The 30-year-old emerged victorious on all three scorecards (119-108, 117-110 and 116-112) to secure the third successful defence of his WBO title at Manchester’s AO Arena.
Hackney’s Okolie rarely got out of second gear across the twelve rounds in his first fight since teaming up with BOXXER and Sky Sports but looked to have rocked the New Zealander in the tenth with a powerful straight right.
Light stood up to the shot well and displayed a granite chin to remain in the contest.
The eleventh saw Okolie deducted a point for persistent holding by referee Bob Williams but the result was never under threat as Light was handed his first defeat in 21 outings.
Okolie meanwhile moved to 19-0 as mega unification fights loom on the horizon.
Heavyweight Frazer Clarke picked up his sixth win is many pro contests as he halted late replacement Bogdan Dinu inside two rounds.
The Romanian looked to complain about an injury to his ribs at the end of his second round and failed to emerge from his corner to hand Clarke his fifth stoppage win.
The Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist sealed his win with an ominous message for Fabio Wardley, warning the British titlist “the people can’t save you” following back-and-forth messages on social media during fight week.
Manchester’s Michael Gomez Jnr also picked up the vacant English title at super-featherweight with a close-fought split-decision win over Grimsby’s Levi Giles.
The latter started the fight more comfortably out of the two, boxing well off the back foot to outland an aggressive Gomez Jnr.
The Mancunian grew into the fight with success of his own as he backed up Giles, making for an anxious wait as the judge’s scorecards were counted.
It was Gomez Jnr however whose hand was raised, winning two of the three scorecards by 97-94 and 97-93 respectively, with the third awarding the fight to Giles (95-96).
The pair engaged in a respectful embrace after a hostile fight week which saw Gomez Jnr shove Giles to the floor at Friday’s weigh-in.
Further down the card, super-middleweight Callum Simpson ended his first televised fight in spectacular fashion with a third-round stoppage win against Spain’s Celco Neves.
The Barnsley man floored the Spaniard in the opening round with a straight right before setting about him again in the third,
Simpson landed another well-timed short right which planted Neves flat on his back in the centre of the ring
Referee Darren Sarginson had no choice but to end the contest 1:36 into the round, handing Simpson his ninth stoppage win in eleven outings.
Super-featherweight Karris Artingstall also overcame Linzi Buczynskyj over six rounds.
Referee Mark Lyson adjudged Artingstall a comfortable 60-55 winner as Artingstall moved to 3-0 as a professional.
Featured image: Lawrence Lustig/BOXXER.
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