Sunday 13 September 2015 01:14, UK
Charlie Edwards won the English flyweight title in only his fifth professional fight as he outpointed Louis Norman at The O2.
The 22-year-old from Epsom seemed to dip in sharpness in the middle rounds but his excellent footwork ensured Norman was unable to capitalise - Edwards claiming a 100-90 99-91 99-92 victory on the scorecards.
Edwards began neatly and for the first few rounds, exercised his natural movement to frustrate the champion. There were several meaningful left hooks and a snappy short right that briefly stunned Norman, but '2Sweet' stuck to his game plan and Edwards looked to be tiring by the fifth.
The challenger regrouped quickly, though and capitalised on Norman's come-forward style by getting his work off and then nipping back out of range. Edwards appeared supremely confident throughout - sticking his tongue out at his opponent and shrugging at him at the end of most rounds.
Sensing his crown was slipping, Norman became increasingly desperate in the latter stages and was made to miss with wild looping shots that only served to emphasise Edwards' superior punch economy. There was one particularly sharp overhand right in the eighth that caught the eye of the judges and Edwards wisely stepped off afterwards to put another round in the bank.
A rare combination from Edwards cemented his control in the penultimate session and although he never really had Norman in any serious trouble, he showed enough to earn a relatively comfortable victory.
Before that bout, there had been drama aplenty. First up, 21-year-old super-bantamweight Lucien Reid kicked off the show as he won his second professional fight against David Hoppal on points and then Hackney lightweight Ohara Davies moved to 8-0 when he stopped Dame Seck in the third.
Welterweight Ted Cheeseman kicked off his professional career with a second-round knockout of Gabor Ambrus and then promising light-heavyweight Jake Ball went one better on his Matchroom bow when he took Haidir Sadiq inside a round.
Controversy reared its head in Tommy Martin's light-welterweight bout with Michael Devine. Martin was comfortably ahead but had been deducted two points for low blows when he floored Devine in the 10th after the Luton man appeared to complain about another shot below the belt. After a confusing delay, Devine was immediately stopped under a Martin barrage.
The battle of Carshalton followed with light-welterweight rivals Ricky Boylan and Danny Connor clashing - the latter using his superior movement to record a points victory.
Watford super-featherweight Reece Bellotti was also taken to the scorecards by resilient Frenchman Adel Hadjouis but walked away with a wide points victory in his third professional contest.
