In the pick of the undercard, Pierce O’Leary and Kane Gardner met for the WBC International super lightweight title at Wembley Arena in London. O’Leary has been making waves with a series of a spectacular knockouts and at his best, Gardner is a talented, slick fighter.

O’Leary has built reputation as a fearsome puncher but there is nothing wild about the way he goes about things. He stalked Gardner from the start, showing good head movement and he sent the Manchester fighter into the ropes with a right hook to the body in the opening round, although Gardner was slightly off balance. 

The 23 year old Dubliner is a clever fighter and he was able to take Gardner’s movement away by moving him to the ropes where he would inject pace into his attacks. Confident that there was little coming back his way, O’Leary began to open up in the fourth and although he won the round, Gardner took advantage of the openings to land a couple of left hooks and a right hand. Buoyed by the glimpses of success, Gardner held his ground in the fifth. Holding his feet and looking to catch O’Leary’s shot and counter with his own, cutting O’Leary over the left eye.

Just when it looked like the tide had begun to turn, O’Leary caught Gardner with a looping left hook in the sixth. The punch landed high on the temple and staggered Gardner and although he stayed on his feet he was badly hurt.

Gardner used the seventh to find his feet but tried to get on the front foot again in the eighth. O’Leary found the going much harder when forced to give ground and the fight became an entertaining bout with both men having success. Gardner was just unable to land regularly enough to change things significantly and O’Leary managed the ten rounds well. With nothing to lose, Gardner pushed the pace in the final round, searching for a fight ending shot but although he landed some clean right hands, he couldn’t budge O’Leary who was awarded a unanimous decision, the scores were 100-90, 99-92 and 99-92.

Gardner (16-3, 7 KO’s) will need to rebuild. O’Leary (13-0, 7 KO’s) wants a European title fight in the non too distant future. 

Also on the card, Moses Itauma got straight down to business. 

The 18 year old heavyweight turned professional amid a blaze of publicity and has been kept busy. This was his fifth appearance since he turned professional in January. Belgian heavyweight, Amin Boucetta, was the man in the opposite corner tonight. 

A brilliant left uppercut dropped Boucetta where he stood barely a minute into the fight. Itauma’s follow up was stunning. He cut loose with both hands, showing remarkable speed for a heavyweight and barely a punch missed the target. Referee, Marcus McDonnell, jumped in to stop the fight after 1.38 of the first round.

Itauma (5-0, 3 KO’s) has already notched up a couple of quick stoppages but his was undoubtedly his most impressive and explosive performance to date. Boucetta (7-9) had absolutely no answer.