Shakan Pitters claimed the vacant British light-heavyweight title as he earned a wide unanimous points decision over Chas Sugden in Redditch, Worcestershire.

In a fight of few highlights, the 6ft 6in Pitters exploited his huge height advantage to keep Sugden at bay. Sugden was never badly hurt, despite suffering a bad cut on his lip in the second round, and he did have some moments, just not nearly enough of them. 

For most of the 12 rounds, Pitters, from Birmingham, dominated to centre of the ring, pushing his jab into the face of Sugden, usually followed by a straight right. Sugden made efforts to close the gap, to try and break the pattern, but he could not get near enough to do any real damage.

Pitters’s best moments came in the 11th round, when he hurt Sugden with a right cross, although Pitters did not really follow it up.

“Chad was very game opponent Piiters said. “I kept it long and punished him as he came in. He was a very tough opponent but he didn’t trouble me. 

“I wanted to keep things basic and it worked. I’m always learning and this was my first 12-rounder. I’d give that performance a six or seven out of ten. It was a decent performance but I’m always improving.”

All the judges went for Pitters. Phil Edwards and Marcus McDonnell both scored it 118-111, while Terry O’Connor scored it 119-110. Steve Gray refereed.

Pitters, 31, who only took up boxing aged 22 after playing football as a teenager, stretched his unbeaten record to 14 fights.

Pitters said he knew he had Sugden hurt in the eleventh round, but hadn’t want to take any risks.

“His legs went he was gone for a bit, if I had stepped on him, I probably could have got him out,” Pitters said. “But I was not going to take any chances. I was way ahead on points, I knew I was winning. All I had to do was keep doing the basics, we knew we could hurt him as he came in.

“It hasn’t quite sunk in. It has been a short career for me so far, this is only my third year, and winning this is a great achievement.

In his first fight in nearly two years, Isaac Chamberlain stopped Antony Woolery with a body shot in the third round. Woolery was aggressive throughout, as Chamberlain struggled to subdue him.

Chamberlain started to unload in the third round, though, as Woolery tried to cover up and a left to the body left Woolery flat on his back, referee Phil Edwards abandoning the count at seven. The time was 1:27.

Chamberlain is due to next box on September 5 on the Hennessy Sports show in Channel 5.

Also on that bill will be Michael Hennessy Jr – the son of promoter, Mick – who extended his unbeaten record to five fights (one draw) with a 58-57 points win over Tom Brennan.

Another left hook to the body was enough for Idris Virgo, a former Love Island contestant, to knock out Josh Hodgkins at 1:44 of the first round. It was his fifth win form six fights, with one draw.

Super-welterweight Conah Walker remained unbeaten as he won every round of his six-rounder against Nathan Bendon.