Gamal Yafai became the new European Super Bantamweight champion, with a deserved away win on the scorecards against Luca Rigoldi in Milan.
Yafai began confidently, and was timing Rigoldi well. In the second, Rigoldi caught Yafai with a few right hands, but Yafai responded with solid body work, which was visibly causing damage.
A right hand to the head from Yafai began round three, and more hard body shots hurt the champion, who began to tuck his elbows in to prevent further pain, but rallied to have his successes towards the end of the round.
It was good action, and Rigoldi was being allowed to set the pace, and he was firmly on the front foot, right in the heat of battle, but Yafai was loading up with his shots.
The pair took a breather in the fifth, but it was back to full pelt in round six, with Rigoldi forced to take a backwards step in the face of more body shots, but again, he regrouped well.
Rigoldi boxed well in the seventh, but right on the bell, a big left hand from Yafai shook him, and his powers of recovery would be tested again as the fog hardly cleared in the next in a round that Yafai dominated.
Rigoldi though was busy, and rallied well to give the judges plenty to think about in rounds nine and ten.
Yafai countered to good effect in the penultimate round, and he finished well too, landing a jarring uppercut in the final frame, and picking off the home favourite with heavy blows as Rigoldi’s tank was running on empty.
The fight went to the cards, where two scores of 116-112, and a third at 119-109 ensured the Birmingham man was crowned the new champion.
Devis Boschiero saw a match with Francesco Patera go up in smoke on fight week, and squeezed past late notice replacement, Samuel Gonzalez, over ten rounds at Lightweight via split decision.
Rounds were tough to score, and Boschiero definitely looked all of his 38 years as his opponent came to score the upset.
The fight went to the cards in the end, and two scores of 96-94 for Boschiero trumped a third for the same score for Gonzalez.
Maiva Hamadouche defended her IBF Super Featherweight title with an eighth round stoppage win against the brave Nina Pavlovic.
Pavlovic was dropped with a swarm of body shots in the second round, but the Serbian was brave as she was getting a working over by the champion.
The fourth saw Pavlovic again pinned in the corner, and she did well to withstand another barrage to the body from Hamadouche.
Pavlovic was exhausted, and was dropped again by a wicked left hand to the body in the fifth. She bravely rose, and saw out the frame, but it was all one way traffic.
Hamadouche repeatedly pinned the challenger in the corner, and Pavlovic was sending distress signals from the seventh, and in the eighth she effectively threw in her own towel, as neither the corner nor the referee would step in, and the fight was thankfully over
Sandor Martin shook the cobwebs away with a routine eight round points win over tough Nicaraguan Nestor Maradiaga.
The European Super Lightweight champion, Martin, went through the motions, and hurt Maradiaga every time he went to the body, but was happy to bank the rounds. The scores were not announced, but the fight was adjudged an unanimous win for the Spaniard.
Opening the show was Mirko Natalizi, and the Rome based Super Welterweight stopped Manuel Largacha inside three rounds.
Largacha’s defence was non existent, and it was only going to be a matter of time before that would be his downfall.
The Panamanian was distracted by the clapper to indicate ten seconds remaining in the round, and Natalizi capitalised with a multiple punch salvo that dazed Largacha on the ropes and forced the referee to jump in.
