By Miguel Assuncao

Olympia, London - London's John Ryder wins the IBF international super middleweight title with a hard fought 12 round unanimous points win over Adam Etches. The judges scored the contest 117-111, 116-112, 118-109.

In what was a crossroads fight for both men following disappointing defeats over the last two years, it was Ryder (23-3-0, 12KOs) who looked sharpest early on as he looked to counter Etches' (20-1-0, 17KOs) work and temporarily pushed back his opponent with a jab to left hook combination in round two.

Southpaw Ryder – known as ‘The Gorilla’ – had Etches in serious trouble several times in round five, landing a number of sharp uppercuts that forced the Sheffield man to hold.

Etches, 26, looked to land single power shots as he controlled centre ring, but was unable to adapt to Ryder's clever head movement at mid-range.

In the sixth, Ryder, 28, had success disguising his jab into a lead hook which caused some reddening under Etches' left eye and the Londoner landed a number of punishing straight shots down the pipe in round eight.

Another left uppercut in round 10 had Etches in trouble as the cumulative damage began to take its toll with the Dominic Ingle-trained fighter also having difficulty seeing out of his now swollen left eye

Encouraged by gym mate Kell Brook, Etches continued to press forward looking for a big shot in the championship rounds but was unable to find the telling blow and lost out on the cards.

London’s Chris Kongo (2-0-0, 1KO) needed under 90 seconds to extend his unbeaten record as he beat Edvinas Puplauskas (4-4-0, 3KOs) by technical knockout.

The man from Bermondsey sent his Lithuanian opponent to the canvas with a well timed body shot around the guard in the opening exchanges and had the hapless Puplauskas down again seconds later with another body blow.

With Puplauskas struggling to get to his feet, the referee called a halt to proceedings just 1.28 into the opening round.