Despite a bad cut Johnny Garton stopped Gary Corcoran to win the British welterweight title
Johnny Garton (23-1-1) claimed the coveted Lonsdale belt with an 11th round stoppage over Gary Corcoran (18-3) in what was an incredible British battle.
'The Pexican' welterweight took on the 'Hellraiser' at the Brentwood Centre in Essex with the vacant British title at stake.
The pair battled in spectacular style from the opening bell all the way up to 42 seconds into the penultimate round when referee Steve Gray deemed Corcoran, 27, unsafe to continue as he was staggered twice by Garton and ended propped up on the ropes on unsteady legs.
Garton was cut midway through the fight and Jimmy Tibbs was forced to work hard to keep a nasty gash on the South Londoner's head under control. Prior to that, the boxers in the ring were forced to fight through distractive crowd trouble during the third and fourth rounds. A head clash in the sixth round opened up a deep cut on Garton's forehead and Corcoran was warned for leading with his head. At the start of the seventh segment, referee Steve gray had a stern talk with both before allowing the round to begin.
The bloody battle see-sawed back and forth at a furious pace with the pair level-pegging on the scorecards all the way through, but Garton came on strong in the championship rounds and forced the stoppage with heavy shots in what has become a luckless round for Corcoran. A barrage of unanswered punches culminated with a strong left hook that ended the fight.
The 11th round has become ill-fated for the North London traveller who has lost all three fights in the 11th now – to Garton; Jeff Horn last December in Brisbane for the WBO World welterweight title; and to bitter rival Liam Williams for the British super-welterweight belt in July 2016.
Garton, 31, added the Lonsdale belt to his IBF European crown, exclusively live on BT Sport, as part of the supporting cast to Anthony Yarde’s succesful bid to keep hold of his WBO Inter-Continental light-heavyweight title against Walter Gabriel Sequeira.
‘The Pexican’, trained by Alan Smith and Eddie Lam at the iBox Gym in London, won the belt that was recently relinquished by his gym-mate Bradley Skeete, after Corcoran was staggered by a series of onslaughts from the Millwall FC fan.
Meanwhile, Joe Mullender (11-2) stopped Ben Capps in an affair that was far from one-sided. The former English and IBF European titlist took on Manchester’s Capps, who suffered a broken jaw during the fight, at late notice and dropped him several times before the referee Kieran McCann called a halt to proceedings after 1:46 seconds of round seven of a scheduled 10.
The Brentwood boxer has had an unfortunate year after testing positive for a banned substance after his last fight with Welshman Lee Churcher in December 2017. The ruling stated that Mullender had not acted intentionally and was not accused of cheating after an illegal ingredient was ingested despite not being listed on the product label. The 32-year-old has battled all year to clear his name and was forced to accept a backdated four months ban, which is the lowest punishment that can be received.
Headliner Anthony Yarde moved up to 17-0 with a fourth-round stoppage over Walter Gabriel Sequeira in a very one-sided affair.
Zak Chelli (5-0) got the bragging rights over Umar Sadiq (3-1). The pair, who had only had seven fights between them before their clash, wanted to put everything on the line over eight rounds. It was Chelli, a second-year business management student at Surrey University, who won by 77 points to 74 in an enthralling showdown in which the loser was knocked down and the victor was busier and livelier throughout. The 20-year-old Londoner wanted to be Frank Warren's top super-middleweight and got his wish with the impressive victory.
Heavyweight hopeful Nathan Gorman moved up to 14-0 with an eight-round points win over Kamil Sokolowski (5-13-2).
Featherweight Lucien Reid (8-0) did the same thing with an eight-round points victory over Rafael Castillo (14-48-3).
Belfast boxer Caoimhin Agyarko (1-0) kicked off his pro career with a six-round points triumph over Slovakian Ladislav Nemeth (11-53-9).Also on the card, James Branch Jr. (2-0) won on points against Kent Kauppinen (0-4) by a margin of 40-36.
Hamzah Sheeraz got a win over Zygimantas Butkevicius.