Rendall Munroe retained his European super-bantamweight title with a unanimous points victory over Kiko Martinez.
"2-Tone" retains his title with points win over Martinez
Rendall Munroe retained his European super-bantamweight title with a unanimous points victory over plucky Spaniard Kiko Martinez on Friday night.
Both men returned to the Barnsley Metrodome, the scene of Munroe's title victory 11 months ago, and the outcome was the same as the man they call "2-Tone" defended his belt for the fourth time.
The Leicester southpaw, although not at his best, landed over 50 more punches than Martinez and the judges scored the contest 116-112, 116-113 and 118-110, all in favour of Munroe.
The fight started at a frenetic pace with both men sustaining facial injuries in the opening round. Munroe was cut above the right eye and a clash of heads saw blood ooze out of the head of Martinez.
Hefty shots
Despite losing the first round, Munroe outboxed and outfoxed the Spaniard in the second as a flurry of blows from range found the target.
Martinez edged the third but neither fighter could land a decisive blow as Munroe toiled to no avail.
The end of the fourth round showed the body shot count at 21-9 in favour of Alicante-born Martinez.
However, a change of tactics in the fifth round kicked Munroe back into action as Martinez, pinned back on the ropes throughout, found himself on the receiving end of a number of telling left hands.
The plucky Spaniard again fought back again in the sixth with a couple of hefty shots of his own, but that was as good as it got as Munroe surged clear from then on.
The seventh, eighth and ninth rounds were all devoid of noteworthy punches but Munroe was the busier of the two as Martinez offered little in the way of aggression.
Triumph
With the fight seemingly destined to be decided by the judges, Munroe upped the tempo in the 10th and 11th rounds with a dejected Martinez camp resigned to an inevitable defeat.
The local favourite went in search of a knockout punch in the final round but to Martinez's credit he refused to go down and Munroe celebrated a points triumph to extend his record to 18-1.
Speaking to
Sky Sports 1 after the fight, Munroe said: "That's all down to my nana's rice, peas, chicken and dumpling!
"Everything is going right at the moment with Jason (Shinfield) my trainer, my manager, Frank (Warren) my promoter - I'm going far, trust me I'm going far.
"I'm enjoying it while I'm in the limelight and I'll keep enjoying it until we go on to some world titles.
"I went out there and proved I can mix it with the big punchers, showed another style that I can fight, I can box and I'm ready for whoever they want to bring on."
