Hopey Price (12-0, 5 KO’s) came through the toughest test of his career, stopping a game Conor Coghill (14-1, 1 KO) in the twelfth and final round of their featherweight fight in Sheffield.

Despite coming into the fight with a shiny unbeaten record, Coghill was almost totally written off before the fight but turned in an excellent performance before fading late.

The rangy Price wanted to the keep fight long, probing with his jab and straight left hand to the body. A confident looking Coghill kept his hands tight and scored with a nice left hand of his own midway through the opener.

Another beautiful left hand hurt Price in the second round. Price did well to keep his feet and smartly grabbed Coghill as the man from Hull tried to follow up his success but despite putting more weight behind his jab in the third, Price seemed unable to prevent the compact Coghill from scoring with the straight left.

Price attempted to stamp his authority on the fight but over the first half of the fight, Coghill was able to land the better shots when the distance closed and his sharp footwork enabled him to step quickly out of range when the pair boxed in centre ring.

Things began to change in the sixth. Buoyed by his success, Coghill loaded up on another left hand but walked directly into a perfectly timed right hand - left hand combination and went down heavily onto his hands and knees.

The tide hadn’t turned completely but Price found something of a rhythm and Coghill was having to work much harder for his success. With the fight in the balance, Price finally began to establish his right hand and made Coghill pay for lunging in as he desperately tried to land the shots which had flowed so easily earlier in the fight.

Price produced a sensational eleventh round. A hard straight left hand dropped Coghill hard and although he managed to get up, he ended the round under severe pressure and the bell saved him. His reprieve didn’t last long. Price jumped off his stool and went for the finish. Coghill was spent and went down again early in the twelfth and final round after a right hand and left hook and when he dropped to his knee after taking a hard right hook to the body, referee Bob Williams stopped the fight after 1.29 of the final round.

Price defended a WBA trinket and the fight doubled as an eliminator for the British featherweight title currently held by Nathaniel Collins.

Junaid Bostan has been a professional for less than two years but the confident 21 year old super welterweight from Rotherham eased past Corey McCulloch (7-4-1, 2 KO’s) to record his seventh victory.

The Scottish welterweight champion is the polar opposite of Bostan (7-0, 6 KO’s) both in personality and style and his business-like approach allowed him to land a couple of solid jabs in the opener whilst a casual Bostan took his time to figure things out.

McCulloch is a natural 147lber and the size difference between the two was apparent. The Scotsman’s shots seemed to be more of an annoyance than a threat to Bostan who began to find his flow in the second round and badly hurt McCulloch with an arcing overhand left in the third. 

Bostan began to run through his full repertoire in the fourth, letting both hands go to the head but never neglecting the body which he targeted with a stabbing jab. McCulloch bravely continued to fight back but Bostan had little respect for his power which resulted in him taking some unnecessary shots and picking up a bloody nose.

Bostan stepped on the gas in the sixth and a busted up McCulloch had no answer. Bostan pinned him on the ropes and let both hands go. McCulloch stayed upright but referee, Michael Alexander, rescued him 2.07 into the round.