Tony Conquest was stopped after seven rounds in Florence as Joe Hughes finally got his hands on the European title at the second time of asking.
After a stagnant three-year period, Romford's Conquest was hoping to rocket himself back into the cruiserweight mix but he fell short as home star Fabio Turchi delivered a knockout finish much to the delight of the partisan home crowd.
The southpaw 'Stone Crusher', who improves to 16-0, successfully defended the WBC International Silver title.
Conquest, a former Commonwealth champion, did start the fight well, matching his Italian counterpart's jab, but soon had to eat two rattling uppercuts in the second.
After a closely fought third, a round that perhaps went the way of the Brit who landed several crisp shots, Turchi started to show his youth and energy, bouncing on to the front-foot to smother the away man, the pair trading blows on the inside.
The Florence favourite stayed on top, grappling up close and sapping the energy out of Conquest, crashing home an uppercut in a gruelling fifth before digging in body blows to take the next.
The finish suddenly came in the seventh as the Londoner took a thumb to the eye that left him grimacing on the canvas, his corner forced to throw the towel in.
One year on from a failed bid against Anthony Yigit, Joe Hughes made no mistake at the second time of asking, dominating Andrea Scarpa to lay claim to the European super-lightweight title.
Hughes put on a boxing clinic to defeat the familiar Italian but somehow only received a split-decision verdict, one judge bizarrely scoring the contest 116-112 to Scarpa, the Brit deservedly taking 118-110 and 116-112 with the other two officials.
Despite having a disability in which his right arm is shorter than his left, Hughes controlled proceedings behind a potent jab, hooking away at will, before recording a memorable victory.