Jeff Saunders made it 14 career wins when he continued his comeback with victory Edvinas Puplauskas at the Newcastle Eagles Arena.
Boxing for only the second occasion in 28 months, the Sedgefield welterweight outpointed the Lithuanian on the MTK event in Toon where Ellis Corrie retained him Northern Area welterweight title against Spennymoor’s Chad Ellis.
Ron Kearney scored it a 60-54 shut-out triumph for “Hands of Stone” with Kevin Weaver the referee in the ring.
Saunders, who trains out of the Wallsend Boxing Academy under Nik Gittus, was in charge throughout, though the Baltic boxer, perhaps buoyed by a win from the away corner in the previous bout, was always competitive.
The 28-year-old Frank Warren-promoted star put on a spurt in the last round to finish the second bout of his comeback strongly.
Another member of the Warren stable, Joe Maphosa made it a perfect 10 as a professional when he won his international super-flyweight contest with Moises Mojica with ease.
The undefeated Thornaby star picked up a 60-54 points success from Mr Kearney.
Mojica turned up in the North-East with a fair record, with six of his nine wins coming early, and he even chucked a long looping right to the head of “Smokin’ Joe” in the opener but the 25-year-old brushed it off without a flicker of discomfort.
A left to the body and left to the head in the second from the Imran Naeem-trained boxer set the tone for a dominant display, with a number of stinging shots finding the body of the Spanish-based Nicaraguan.
Troy Williamson’s thirst for the early finish continued as he extended his unbeaten run to 15 fights.
The Darlington star, whose quality is matched by his power, dismantled Daniel Urbanski inside two rounds.
‘Trojan’ came into the contest off the back of a 10th-round stoppage triumph for the International Boxing Federation’s version of the European light-middleweight belt at the Copperbox Arena in London in December.
But his Polish opponent never looked like going 10, especially after looking uncomfortable in the opener in the face of Williamson’s body work.
A right to the head put him down in the second and while up by the count of six, he was soon down again, with referee Kevin McIntyre calling a end at 58 seconds of round two..
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins
