Harlem Eubank extended his unbeaten record to 15 fights with a ninth-round disqualification over Mexico’s Eliot Chavez, who was thrown out after twice punching Eubank on the break, on the Kelly-Bastida undercard in Newcastle

Things almost came horribly unstuck for Eubank in the seventh round when he was dropped by a punch when he had dropped his hands after the referee told them to stop boxing. 

The incident happened when the two became entangled. Referee Kenny Pringle said “stop boxing” and Eubank stepped back with his hands down, but Chavez kept throwing landing one punch and then following up with another that sent Eubank crashing to the canvas. 

Eubank took time to recover, and Pringle let Chavez off with a warning, saying he would be disqualified if it happened again. And it did, with only 47 seconds left in the ninth round, Pringle shouted break and separated the pair, only for Chavez to land a left hook. The fight was instantly waved off.  

Former world amateur silver medallist and Commonwealth Games champion Lisa Whiteside returned from a near three-year absence from the ring to score a wide points win over Jasmina Nad, of Serbia.  

Nad was down within 20 seconds of the opening bell as she was caught by a right hook. She then walked straight into Whiteside, who hit her repeatedly with right hooks and uppercuts, although this time she took them well. 

As the rounds wore on, Nad seemed to get used to taking the blows, as her impressive durability and constant forward motion made Whiteside work hard and Whiteside picked up a nasty cut beside her right eye in the fifth round. She saw the last round out without problem, although the way she sat down in her corner at the end of the sixth round showed that she clearly believed there were more rounds to come.  

Referee Kevin McIntyre score it 60-53. 

Heavyweight Steve Robinson got back to winning ways as he claimed a 39-37 decision from referee McIntyre over Phil Williams to move up to 5-1 as a pro.  

Robinson mostly bossed it, but tended to lad up on his shots, while Williams nullified Robinson’s work and did well up close. 

Super-featherweight Kai Richmond moved to 2-0 with a third-round stoppage of Taka Bembere, of Zimbabwe. Richmond dropped Bembere with a right early in the third and while he beat the count, he walked into trouble and referee Neil Close stopped it at 1:21. 

Heavyweight novices Hosea Stewart and Franklin Ignatius both retained their unbeaten records with a four-round draw, with referee Kenny Pringle scoring it 38-38. 

It was often a messy encounter, with Stewart doing his best to make his weight advantage count. Stewart is now 2-0-1, Ignatius 4-0-1. 

Jordan Barker-Porter looked to be happy going through the motions for most of her lightweight six-rounder with Bec Connolly, until producing a lightning burst of punches to force the stoppage at 1:51 of the fifth round. 

A massive right rocked Connolly back into a corner and she followed up with a series of big shots until referee Close intervened. 

Super-lightweight Ben Marksby extended his unbeaten record to five fights with a six-round decision over Rustem Fatkhullin, who was billed as from Kyrgyzstan, although he is very much a UK-based journeyman these days. Referee Ron Kearney scored it 60-55. 

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.