Martin Rogan was crowned Commonwealth heavyweight champion after becoming the first man to stop Matt Skelton.
Cabbie takes Commonwealth belt after sensational battle
Prizefighter Martin Rogan's fairytale continued as he was crowned Commonwealth heavyweight champion.
The Belfast cabbie clubbed the experienced Matt Skelton to defeat in one of the best fights the British big boys have produced for years.
Skelton has had twice as many fights as the challenger, had never been stopped and had fought for the WBA and European titles in his last two outings.
Rogan shot to prominence by winning the inaugural Prizefighter tournament but the £25,000 aside, the biggest trapping that had brought was a points win over Audley Harrison.
But even he and his most ardent of fans cannot have envisaged the sort of night that unfolded before a captivated crowd at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena.
Experience
They were mainly there to see the Brit pack turn professional, but in the end it was two wily, tough old campaigners who caught the imagination.
Yet for the opening quarter of the fight it seemed, worryingly, to be going to form - and was far from thrilling. Skelton's size and experience smothered the challenger's attempts and seemingly sapped what enthusiasm he had brought to the ring.
The Bedford man might have been on top, but he was not banging home with any regularity, instead pawing out a jab and leaning on Rogan more than beating up on him.
But then, in the fifth, the fight was turned on its head. For the first time, Rogan exerted sustained pressure on his man and as Skelton gamely tried to fight back, a spearing right caught him flush and opened up a gash over his left eye.
Rogan didn't need a second invitation and started the sixth in similar fashion, this time a left rocking his man badly. Never the most mobile, Skelton took to his toes but the challenger was not to be denied and walked him down, landing plenty of leather in the process.
Bulldoze
As the seventh drew to a close, Rogan forced his man onto the ropes and unloaded a terrific combination. Alternate hooks to the jaw wobbled Skelton's head badly and had referee John Keane stepped in there and then, few would have complained.
But he didn't, so Rogan did the very same again, in the same spot in the eighth, although this time brute force saw Skelton bulldoze his way out of trouble.
And then, with the finish eluding him, it seemed Rogan had run out of gas. Still throwing, his shots suddenly lacked power and for the ninth round at least, it seemed as if Skelton's know-how might yet see him through to an unlikely win.
That likelihood increased in the 10th but then in the 11th, Rogan's dreams came true.
Stumbling
All of a sudden, he landed a right flush on the chin and that was it. Skelton was out on his feet and stuck in the corner, where he was subjected to seven or eight big, big punches all of them pinpoint - and all of them painful.
Yet again he managed to survive, but as they spun round Rogan was on him again, another jarring right crashing home and sending the 42-year-old stumbling across the ring and flat on to his face in the opposite corner.
Somehow he beat the count and persuaded Keane he was fit enough to continue, but no sooner had Rogan been waved in, the punches came thick and fast again and the fight was called off.
Rogan sank to his knees in celebration, having secured the Commonwealth belt and at the same time, given the British heavyweight division a much-needed shot in the arm.
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