Kiko Martinez became European champion for the fifth time and lined himself up another world title shot at the age of 36 as he dropped Jordan Gill four times on the way to a fourth-round stoppage at Wembley Arena.

It was only in February that Martinez’s most recent reign as a world champion was ended by Josh Warrington in a brutal encounter, but the Spaniard seems to still be in the prime of his career. 

It is more than 15 years since he first won a European title – at super-bantamweight – stopping Bernard Dunne in what was seen as a big upset at the time. 

It has been eight months since Gill won the title in sensational style, when, barely able to stand after suffering two perforated eardrums, he somehow found a punch to knock Karim Guerfi out cold. 

Martinez, the former two-weight IBF champion, was comfortably the toughest test of his career. Cut in the second round, Gill never seemed to recover from the first knockdown early in the third. Martinez is not the sort of fighter that needs too many invitations. 

After a fact-finding first round, Martinez seemed to have found his range early in the second as he landed a left hook that had Gill backing away. Gill landed well with the right later in the round, but he finished the round with blood flowing from a cut above his right eye. 

Encouraged by that, Martinez stepped on the gas in the third, as he landed a right that sent Gil back into the ropes and down to the floor. 

He was seriously shaken and a right uppercut sent him to the floor for the second time in the round in the dying seconds.  

Gill’s tried punching his way out of trouble, but he was hurt by another looping right. By now his face was a mess and a straight right bowled him over for the third time. There was no escape now and when a left hook dropped Gill on his back, he raised one hand in victory. 

Gill beat the count but referee Gisseppe Quarterone waved it off, as Gill’s manager stood ready with the towel to wave it off anyway. The official time was 2:44. 

As well as for the European title (he has won it twice at super-bantamweight and twice at featherweight), it was an IBF featherweight title eliminator. Rather than a third fight with Warrington, Martinez said he was interested in facing WBA champion Leigh Wood. 

Johnny Fisher needed just two minutes and three seconds to blow away Dominik Musil, of the Czech Republic, in a heavyweight clash that was ambitiously scheduled for six rounds. 

Fisher missed much of the year with a hand injury but returned from six months out to stop Michal Reissinger in two rounds in August. 

Musil had lost every time he had boxed outside the Czech Republic, including a stoppage to another British prospect David Adeleye a year ago. 

Looking quite lean, Fisher threw out a few courtesy jabs before a looping right to the side of the head had Musil rocking. 

He held on but then two big rights sent him crashing down. He looked fairly unstable as he rose, but referee Marcus McDonnell let him go on, only to stagger to the canvas again moments later when his legs betrayed him after another right hand.  

Once again, he was allowed to continue and he soaked up some hard rights without going down before McDonnell stepped in with Musil looking vulnerable on the ropes. 

“Once I’ve got someone hurt, I keep them hurt,” Fisher said. 

Fisher, 23, is now 7-0.  

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.