MTK promoted another busy night of action at the Bolton Whites Hotel, with a pair of continental title fights topping the bill.
The nominal head of the bill came at Welterweight, where Lewis Crocker defended his WBO European strap with a dominant, yet entertaining points win against the teak tough Deniz Ilbay.
Crocker was making the first defence of the belt that he won last time out, with a seventh round stoppage of Louis Greene, while Ilbay was coming off a first round success back in December 2019.
Ilbay landed with a decent left in the opener as he attempted to gain Crocker’s respect in what was a lively start.
Crocker though, was warming to his task, and he landed with some meaty shots of his own in the second, and several body shots seemed to trouble the German.
A left hand to the body in the opening seconds of the third hurt Ilbay, who dropped his hands in apparent pain but took the shot well.
Ilbay continued to chug forwards, but a sickening left to the body towards the end of the round took the wind out of the visitors sails, and he was forced to taste the canvas. He survived the count, and in the final minute of the fourth, he caught a careless Crocker with a stiff right hand that hurt the Irishman, but there was too little time left in the session to capitalise.
All the action seemed to be taking place at the end of the frames, and a one-two from Ilbay in the fifth was countered by another lethal body shot that hurt him once again.
Ilbay was unfazed by head shots, and was taking a lot of punishment, but still he came forward, and try as he might, Crocker just couldn’t shift his man, and was forced to go the full ten rounds.
Scores of 99-90, 97-93 and 97-92 ensured the title remained with the man from Belfast.
Gary Cully took the vacant WBO European Lightweight crown with an impressive second round knockout of Viktor Kotochigov.
A long fight and an acid test was expected for Cully ahead of the fight, but a massive left hand bang on the chin felled the Kazakh, who was robbed of his legs as he attempted to beat the count, to no avail.
The rest of the card went the distance, and at Super Featherweight, Isaac Lowe made his return with a six round points win against Ed Harrison.
Lowe took the fight by a 60-55 margin, but was cut on his left eyebrow in the third which looked a nasty one. Lowe’s cousin, Tyson Fury was watching on from ringside.
A duo of debutants made winning starts. At Super Middleweight, Jordan Reynolds took all six rounds against Robbie Chapman, and Carl Fail took a 58-56 verdict against the previously unbeaten Jordan Dujon at Super Welterweight.
The sole four rounder came Lightweight, where Mace Ruegg moved to 4-0 with a shutout points win against Levi Dunn, who remains winless.
