Ben Whittaker produced the fireworks and a fair bit of dazzle on his debut as he knocked out Greg O’Neill in the second round of their light-heavyweight fight on the Billam-Smith v Chamberlain bill in Bournemouth.

“That’s how you do it, man,” said Whittaker, the 2020 Olympic silver medal-winner. “That is the first round of many.

“The first round I wasn’t the happiest, so I thought I am going to hurt this boy now. At the weigh-in yesterday, I didn’t like the way he pushed up on me in them jean shorts. Nobody in jean shorts is beating me.”

Within 25 seconds of the start, Whittaker lifted O’Neill off his feet as they got tangled up, O’Neill trying a wild swipe with his right as he was put down despite referee Mark Lyson’s loud cry of “stop boxing”.

Whittaker laughed it off as he evaded the punch. O’Neill, who was seriously riled up, got a serious ticking off from Lyson. Whittaker then landed a good body shot and when they got tied up again, it was Whittaker’s turn to try a sucker punch, which also missed and also earned him a warning.

But Whittaker was soon landing hard to body and head, winding up his uppercuts and then ducking the replies before showboating to the crowd.

By now O’Neill was fuming and his frustrations worsened when Whittaker nailed him twice before ducking under a reply so extravagantly that O’Neill was left facing out of the ring by the ropes. Whittaker then finished the round with two sharp uppercuts.

It only took Whittaker one punch to end it in the second round, a sharp overhand right that crashed into the side of O’Neill’s head and send him over backwards. O’Neill tried to rise but laid back down, as referee Lyson counted him out at 0:21.

Frazer Clarke, a Tokyo 2020 Olympic super-heavyweight bronze medal-winner, returned to the ring with a two-round stoppage of Argentina’s Ariel Esteban Bracamonte, who had taken Jarrell Miller the full ten rounds last month.

Clarke had been out since his debut in February after suffering a thumb injury, but he kept Bracamonte on the end of his jab and whipped hooks around the side of his guard as the big Argentinian gradually slowed.

However, after one hook landed around the back of the head, Bracamonte took a lengthy time-out and Clarke picked up a warning. Clarke chose that moment to up the pace and a left hook dropped Bracamonte beside the ropes. He slowly made it to his feet at the count of eight, but referee John Latham waved it off. The official time was 2:57. It had been scheduled for six.

“He is a big man and a lot of target to hit,” Clarke said. “But he was rugged and threw that right hand a few times. I had to be sharp in the mind because if you are lazy and that comes over the top, it finishes many people.”

Caroline Dubois – a third member of the GB Olympic 2020 squad in action - got little more than target practice from Tanzania’s Happy Daudi as she held her feet and landed at will before forcing a third-round stoppage.

The 21-year-old lightweight was far too classy for Daudi and looked on target for a first-round stoppage as she battered Daudi around the ring in the first round, the Tanzanian seemingly unable to locate where the punches were coming from.

Daudi was down early in the third when she was caught by a left hook, with the follow-up shop seeming to bundle Daudi over. But Dubois then picked her punches well for forced referee John Latham’s intervention at 0:46. Dubois, who is now 3-0, is next likely to be out on the undercard of the Claressa Shields-Savannah Marshall fight on September 10.

Hassan Azim came out like a tornado against Jacob Quinn, knocking him down with a right hook within ten seconds and then landing a series of crunching punches to head and body. But he rather blew himself out in the first round as Azim was made to settle for a six-round points win.

Somehow Quinn saw his way through the onslaught and he came back into things in the second.

Azim boxed well in the third round, though, as he kept things long and landed some hard rights, but Quinn did well in the fourth, moving and scoring from the outside. By the fifth, Azim was starting to tire but he finished well, hurting the gallant Quinn in the final ten seconds.

Referee Mark Lyson scored it 59-55.

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