A lack of power could prove the downfall of Germaine Brown, but he marked himself out as a serious force among the domestic middleweights as he moved to 12-0 by taking the English title from Charlie Schofield on the Khan-Brook bill in Manchester.

It was a good performance by Brown, who was a step ahead of Schofield throughout and put his punches together well.

Victor Loughlin and Howard Foster scored it 99-92, with Phil Edwards having it 98-92.

There is nothing lacking in the power of Brad Rea, though, who landed a sensational left uppercut in the first round to flatten Craig McCarthy.

Rea set it up well with a series of chopping rights before delivering a perfect uppercut. Referee Darren Sarginson began to count but waved it off at eight when the towel came in from the corner. The time was 1:53.

Rea moves to 12-0

Viddal Riley threatened to have a short night, but after knocking down Willbeforce Shihepo in the first round, he never kept enough pressure of the 39-year-old Namibian to force a stoppage.

Shihepo was on the floor midway through the opening round, when he missed with a big right and was countered with a right uppercut. Riley landed and big sweeping right in the second that seemed to stagger the Namibian, but his work got messy thereafter as, after two years out of the ring, the Londoner, who boxing in the UK for the first time as a professional, struggled to up the pace.

After being screamed at by his corner to “let the punches go”, he had Shihepo in trouble in the fifth, but was ultimately forced to settle for a points win, John Latham scoring it 60-53.

Ibrahim Nadim kicked off the show as the Yorkshire super-bantamweight moved to 5-0 with a 40-36 points win over Taka Bembere, while Abdul Khan claimed a 40-35 decision over Rickey Starkey at featherweight to move to 3-0.

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.