Troy Williamson warmed up for a defense of his British super-welterweight title against Josh Kelly as he got six rounds of work out of David Benitez, who was pulled out by his corner in the sixth of a super-middleweight eight-rounder in Bolton.

Benitez, from Argentina, had been stopped by Aaron McKenna on a previous trip to the UK in June, while Williamson had not boxed since beating Mason Cartwright in March, when he had to get off the floor to win, and he had said he wanted to go some rounds.

He found the perfect opponent for that in Benitez, who was willing, durable, but lacked the handspeed to really bother him. Williamson slowly worked him over in the first three rounds and Benitez picked up a cut over the left eye, caused by a clash of heads.

The sight of blood seemed to spur on Williamson, who landed a cracking right in the fourth as Benitez was turned away complaining to the referee about another head clash.

Things started to get one-sided in the fifth and Benitez was on the floor, from a right to the body, a knockdown being counted although he seemed to be mostly pushed down. The Argentinian actually fired back with a cracking right uppercut, but it was one punch against many coming the other way.

There was a warning for a low punch for Benitez in the sixth round, but there was no escape as Williamson upped the pace, the towel coming in from the Argentinian corner at 2:46 after he turned out of a clinch indicated that he had had enough.

Kalle Sauerland, the promoter said the Williamson-Kelly fight would take place in December in Newcastle.

“It’s a massive fight,” Sauerland said. “It will be one of the biggest shows in the North-East in years,” Sauerland said.

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.