Shakan Pitters won the vacant British Light-Heavyweight belt with a wide points win over the game Chad Sugden in their clash in Redditch.
The bill topper was part of Mick Hennessy’s first post-lockdown show behind closed doors on Channel 5 in the UK, as the sport made a welcome return to free-to-air terrestrial TV
Pitters (14-0, 4 KOs) began in relaxed fashion and used his significant height advantage to good effect, working off a decent jab in the opening session, and landing with a left hook.
Sugden (11-2-1, 4 KOs) himself though produced punch of the round with a right hand finding the target.
The pair opened up at the start of the second and Pitters regained control as he took centre ring during the session.
Sugden sustained a cut on his lip that the referee examined at the beginning of the third, but he was given the all clear to continue.
The Nottinghamshire man was struggling to get inside of Pitters’ long levers, and had to resort to rushing in, allowing his Birmingham foe to fend him off.
Sugden had a better fourth, landing with decent combinations, but Pitters was able to time his assaults to keep a step ahead of his opponent.
The pattern was pretty much set with former English champion, Pitters boxing at range and Sugden too far away to cause a real dent, and it was hard to give ‘2 Slick’ a round going into the championship rounds.
The tenth saw Pitters really showcase his jab, and he was coasting to victory, confusing Sugden, who then landed a surprise left hook that momentarily stopped 31-year-old in his tracks.
Sugden, 26, was going past eight rounds for the first time in his career, and he was shaken up by a solid right hand in the eleventh as his race looked to be run, but did well to see out the session when he looked seriously buzzed, as another right found the mark.
Pitters kept on his impressive jab, and repelled a final brave effort from Sugden as the contest went to the scorecards.
The result looked to be academic, and scores of 118-111 from Phil Edwards and Marcus McDonnell and Terry O’Connor’s 119-110 verdict confirmed Pitters’ dominance as he became the new Lonsdale Belt holder at 175lbs and remains unbeaten.
“I give credit to Chad, he was a game and tough opponent,” said Pitters to Channel 5′ post-fight.
“The game plan was to stick to the basics, I kept it long and punished him as he came on.
“His legs went, and if I stepped on him, I probably could have got him out, but I wasn’t going to take any chances being so far ahead on points.”
Isaac Chamberlain made a long awaited debut under the Hennessy Sports banner, and wasted little time in blasting out Wolverhampton’s Antony Woolery inside three rounds of their Cruiserweight encounter.
The Londoner had been out of action since October 2018, with his last fight a tight points win over former Commonwealth champion, Luke Watkins.
Chamberlain (11-1, 5 KOs) dominated off a superb jab that Woolery (2-3, 1 KOs) struggled to get inside of and after shaking off the rust in the first couple of sessions, Chamberlain went to work in the third.
The 26-year-old unleashed a massive right to the head followed by a crushing left to the body that had Woolery out, with the count dispensed with by the referee.
Chamberlain will be out next in two week’s time, on the undercard of Alex Dilmaghani’s European Super-Featherweight title tilt.
Conah Walker saw his Midlands Area title shot go up in smoke as Kaisee Benjamin was ruled out with food poisoning, and the Wolverhampton Welterweight improved to 8-0-1 with a six round points win against Nathan Bendon.
This was a rematch of their May 2019 meeting in which Walker (8-0-1, 2 KOs) won by two points at the Town Hall in Walsall.
Bendon (3-3-1, 1 KO) took the fight to Walker after coming in at short notice, but Walker came through in a deserved 60-54 win on the referee’s scorecard.
Former Love Island contestant Idris Virgo (6-0-1, 1 KO) stopped Josh Hodgins (0-2) inside a round with a vicious left hand body shot right under the 29-year-old’s elbow to register his first professional KO.
Michael Hennessy Jr (4-0-1) took a 58-57 win over Tom Brennan (1-2) to remain unbeaten.
The son of the promoter looked like he was decked in the second, but the referee ruled a slip, as he took the Middleweight six rounder by a single point.
