By Chris Williamson

Belfast, SSE Arena - Dublin middleweight Luke Keeler (now 14-2-1) won the vacant WBO European title with a convincing ten round decision win over Northern Ireland's Conrad Cummings. It was an emotionally charged contest from the opener as the two jostled for early advantages. Keeler immediately landed the better, more powerful jab, mixed with some lovely lefts to the body. A double left hook hurt Cummings early on and a right hand wobbled him, as Keeler’s body language grew noticeably in confidence.

Keeler landed a series of punishing body shots in the fourth and a beautiful right hand counter to nullify some notable but increasingly rare success from Cummings. Keeler became comfortable enough to goad his opponent with hands by his sides daring him to attack. The Dubliner’s punches simply sounded harder and he was producing by far the greater variety, until a twist arrived in the form of a terrible cut above Keeler’s left eye, the result of a head clash.

At the end of the sixth, Keeler walked back to his corner blinking uncomfortably and the seventh proved dramatic, with Cummings landing the right hand more regularly as a result of Keeler’s impaired vision. Despite this, the Northern Irishman didn’t appear to carry enough power to seriously hurt Keeler and the pace inevitably dropped. Entering the final round Keeler wisely opted to jab, move and stay out of trouble. Keeler is trained by Katie Taylor’s father Peter, who did an excellent job of keeping his man focused when the cut threatened to change the direction of the contest. The judges scored it unanimously for Keller with scores of 98-92, 97-93 and 99-91.

Unbeaten Belfast super-lightweight Tyrone McKenna outworked London’s Anthony Upton in a well-matched mini-thriller broadcast as the first televised bout with the SSE arena filling up and noise level ratcheting up.

Southpaw McKenna pressed the action for the most part with Upton countering effectively with shorter, quick hooks. McKenna would telegraph his favoured left uppercut up close, with Upton generally too cute to take it flush. Upton switched to southpaw intermittently as the two exchanged solid shots up close through what was becoming a gruelling battle.

The two are friends, boxing as amateurs when Upton stopped McKenna, but friendship was put aside as a sickening body shot dropped Upton for a count of eight in the ninth. McKenna underlined his case for victory in the final stanza, landing possibly the finest head shot of the fight with a solid left while the weary Londoner’s defence loosened. Referee Marcus McDonnell scored 98-92.

Liverpool super-lightweight Sam Maxwell wasted no time finishing Spain-based Nicaraguan Michael Isaac Carrero with an overhand right which landed on the top the visitors head and dropped him for the count. The fight lasted just 56 seconds and Maxwell moves to 7-0.

Belfast’s Marco McCullough (now 19-4) had his second bout since an unsuccessful challenge for Ryan Walsh’s British featherweight title with an easy six round decision win at super-feather over late substitute, Barcelona-based Nicaraguan Arnaldo Salido. McCullough dropped the switch-hitting visitor with body shots early in the second and the match became target practice by the third. The visitor staged a brief, aggressive two handed assault in the fourth which McCullough defended effectively, but it was largely one-way traffic. The referee scored 60-53 for the local man.

Derry southpaw Tyrone McCullagh (now 10-0) moved well in stopping Nicaraguan journeyman Elvis Guillen at featherweight in three one sided rounds. Guillen looks facially similar to countryman and former world champion Ricardo Mayorga, but the resemblance ends with facial features with ‘White chocolate’ dominating from start to finish until the referee waved it off at 2 minutes 10 seconds of the third with the visitor taking sustained punishment in a neutral corner.

Chiselled Darlington middleweight Troy ‘Trojan’ Williamson chalked the sixth straight win on his ledger with a useful stoppage over Devon-based Spaniard Christian Hoskin Gomez. Gomez was brave and occasionally landed a favoured but wild left hook. Williamson punished Gomez to his relatively fleshy body and by end of the third round the Spaniard appeared to be wilting. So it proved as Williamson moved through the gears to pepper Gomez with hooks to body and head until the referee waved it off at two minutes and 41 seconds of the fourth.

Chiselled Darlington middleweight Troy ‘Trojan’ Williamson chalked the sixth straight win on his ledger with a useful stoppage over Devon-based Spaniard Christian Hoskin Gomez. Gomez was brave and occasionally landed a favoured but wild left hook. Williamson punished Gomez to his relatively fleshy body and by end of the third round the Spaniard appeared to be wilting. So it proved as Williamson moved through the gears to pepper Gomez with hooks to body and head until the referee waved it off at two minutes and 41 seconds of the fourth.

Birmingham super-middleweight Ryan Hatton kicked off Frank Warren’s big Belfast show moving to 3-0 with two round win over Hungarian journeyman Attila Tibor Nagy, who drops to 11-30-1.

In the second match on the bill, big Merseyside-born heavyweight Alex Dickinson also didn’t waste any time during his third Belfast appearance in five fights, beating Mancunain Lee Carter in just one minute and eight seconds of the first round.