Alejandro Meneses claimed the vacant IBO super-lightweight title as he battered Sam Maxwell to defeat in the ninth round of a thriller on Probellum’s show in Liverpool. 

It was the Mexican’s power that won it. He got through with the right hand as early as the first round and although Maxwell seemed to be getting on top several times, Meneses knocked him down in the fourth, badly hurt him in the seventh and knocked him down again in the ninth before forcing the stoppage. 

The Mexican made an excellent start, rocking Maxwell with three big rights in the first round as Maxwell struggled to find his range. 

Th second went better for Maxwell, but Meneses still got through with his right as they both opened up and Maxwell gained the upper hand in the third. 

The fourth was a thriller, as Maxwell did well early before he was dropped by a big right. It seemed a flash knockdown, but Meneses invested plenty of energy trying to finish matters and Maxwell came back at the end of the round and dominated the fifth and sixth rounds as he picked off Meneses. 

As things seemed to be going Maxwell’s way, though, he was badly staggered by a left hook in the seventh round by Meneses, who kept up the attack and kept landing, Maxwell somehow staying in his feet as the Mexican emptied the tank again. 

Early in the eighth, Maxwell was rocked again by a right but Maxwell shrugged it off and came forward, although he took more hard shots. 

As hard as Maxwell was trying, though, he was still open to Meneses’s right. In the ninth a string of right hands landed before he was eventually dropped. This time the Liverpudlian’s resistance ran out, as he was battered back to the ropes before referee Howard Foster jumped in to stop it at 2:39. 

Jazza Dickens got back to winning ways eight months after losing to Kid Galahad for the IBF featherweight title as he knocked out former European champion Andoni Gago, from Spain, in the fifth round. 

It was a sharp performance from Dickens who eased his way back in for the first two rounds before upping the pace. 

Dickens, 31, started to get on top in the third, as he landed well with the left. Near the end of the round, a big clash of heads saw Gago, 36, back away and then go down after another punch leaving the Gago corner furious at referee John Latham after he scored it a knockdown. 

Early in the fourth round, another clash of heads left Dickens cut over his right eye, but Dickens regained his composure in the fifth, rocking Gago with a left and late in the round landing a big left uppercut that saw him counted out by Latham at 2:52. 

“I expected ten rounds because he has never been stopped like that before but that was a statement,” Dickens said. 

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.