David Avanesyan brushed Liam Taylor aside in two rounds to retain his European welterweight title on the debut BOXXER show on Sky Sports at the SSE Arena, Wembley. 

It was a brutal performance by Avanesyan, who took the fight by the scruff of the neck in the opening seconds and completely overwhelmed Taylor. 

Things looked ominous for Taylor from the opening bell as Avanesyan walked him down. 

At the start, Taylor tried to keep the Russian off with straight shots, but when that didn’t work he was forced to trade. That looked futile as Avanesyan landed short, sharp hooks and uppercuts that went straight through Taylor’s guard and rocked his head back. 

Taylor was being completely outgunned, with Avanesyan’s left hook looking particularly hurtful, but it was a right hook that had Taylor over near the end of the first round, the Lancashire boxer touching down after the shot landed on the side of his head. 

He started the second as if he wanted to box but Avanesyan was straight on to him again, as Taylor was forced to trade and Avanesyan landed all the better punches. 

The finishing salvo was a left, right, left combination that had Taylor flailing against the ropes, prompting referee Mark Lyson to step in at 2:18 of the second round. 

Taylor complained at the stoppage, but he seemed unable to keep Avanesyan off him, let alone mount any meaningful attacks. 

The fight was promoted to the top of the bill when Anatoli Muratov failed his medical for his fight with Chris Eubank Jr, but it was a return to familiar ground for Avanesyan, who stopped Josh Kelly at the same venue in his previous title defence in February. 

Eubank is likely to box in two weeks on the next BOXXER show in Newcastle. 

Ebonie Jones brought a lot of fans up from Portsmouth as she made a successful professional debut with a 59-55 points decision over Lithuania’s Vaida Masiokaite. 

Jones, who was giving away a fair bit of height, started very quickly looking to land big shots. But in her eagerness to impress, her accuracy was often off, as Masiokaite used her reach to keep Jones at bay. 

Still, Jones kept the pressure on Masiokaite to run out a handy winner. 

Joe Pigford is now unbeaten in 18 fights as he stopped Ghana’s Isaac Aryee in the fifth round of their super-welterweight six. 

Aryee gave it a go, but Pigford carried too much power for him. Aryee was down twice, in the second from a good punch off the ropes, and then in the fifth as he took a knee after he seemed to suffer damage around his left eye from a hard right. That prompted his corner to ask it to be waved off at 1:27 of the round. 

Handy flyweight prospect Harvey Horn also extended his unbeaten record with a wide points win over Adam Yahaya, of Tanzania, over six rounds. 

Horn was much too quick for Yahaya and bounced in and out of range, catching him almost at will in the early stages, but Yahaya soon got fed up with that and backed away, inviting Horn forward, and trying to hook off the ropes. 

By the fourth round, the action had settled down, with Horn content to pick Yahaya off, as he boxed himself to a comfortable 60-54 points win on referee Chas Coakley’s card.