Linus Udofia retained the English middleweight title as he stopped John Harding Jr in the ninth round of their ten-rounder to open the Matchroom show in Milton Keynes.

Harding was dropped heavily by a chopping right hook and, while he beat the count, referee Michael Alexander waved the fight off.

It was a good performance by Udofia, from Luton. The early rounds were close, but Udofia pressed the pace more and showed a good variety of punches, slowing Harding with body shots and whipping over good rights. He extended his unbeaten record to 16 fights.

“I’m still in dream land,” Udofia said. “He had a really good jab and he did bring the best out of me. We saw him tiring after six, we saw he wasn’t getting up on ten seconds left (at the end of the interval), so we knew it was coming, we just didn’t think it would come like that, we thought it would come from the body.

“This stage brought out the best in me.”

In an opening round fought almost exclusively with jabs, the best shot was landed just as the bell sounded, Udofia catching Harding with an overhand right.

Udofia gained the upper hand in the second round, but Harding came back well in the third, catching Udofia walking in with an overhand right and then landing a good uppercut on the inside as he followed up.

Harding had a good fourth round too, as he picked his moments to attack well, but Udofia was busier and, in the fifth round, there were signs that Harding was struggling to match his workrate.

In the sixth round, Udofia moved up a gear, switching his attack to head and body. His dominance continued in the seventh round and, after a fast start to the eighth by Udofia, Harding looked in trouble as he was caught by a series of right hands.

Harding tried to match Udofia punch for punch in the ninth round, but as Harding tried to throw a right hand, Udofia countered with a heavy right that dropped Harding. He protested at the stoppage, but Harding looked just about spent. The official time of the stoppage was 2:07 of the ninth round.