Technical decision forces Wadi Camacho and Arfan Iqbal Commonwealth clash to finish early
Camacho wins Commonweath strap after fight goes to scorecards following an injury in round seven
Iqbal falls through the ropes and cannot continue
Camacho avenges his previous loss to Iqbal 16 months ago
The 'Machoman' claimed the vacant Commonwealth crown at the York Hall after he dropped the 'Major' in the fifth and he fell through the ropes in round seven and couldn't continue.
The three ringside officials scored the contest 69-63, 69-63, 68-64 to the new Commonwealth cruiserweight champion – Camacho.
It was a close fight in the opening rounds, but the Londoner looked very calm and composed despite having a loss on his ledger at the hands of Iqbal 16 months prior. There were some big bombs being thrown in round three from both men but it was Iqbal who was down at the end of round five and looking very ragged in the corner. He came back with a big right hand that caught Camacho’s attention in the sixth. Arfan was bundled out of the ring in the seventh round and smashed his back on the table, forcing him out of the fight, which was brought an end to a highly entertaining battle.
Camacho, 33 from Canning Town, is the current Southern Area champ and Iqbal, 27 from Derby, holds the English championship. The pair previously met for the vacant English strap in July 2017 with Iqbal winning via fourth-round TKO.
Fellow cruiserweight Lawrence Okolie vacated the Commonwealth strap to challenge British cruiserweight champion Matty Askin on September 22 on the Anthony Joshua vs Alexander Povetkin Wembley Stadium show.
Barelona-born Camacho improves to 21-7 and Iqbal drops to 12-1-1, his last two bouts ending in a draw to Simon Valliliy and a loss.
In the only other title fight, it was an explosive start and finish as Michael Ramabeletsa stopped Ryan Walker at 2:05 of the opening round to become the new English super-bantamweight champion.
On the undercard, Martin Foru (2-0) won 40-35 after dropping Raimonds Sniedze in round four.
Xhujo Vrenozi defeated Bulgarian Angel Emilov 59-56.
It was another fantastic performance from Liam Dillon as he moved to 8-0 with a victory over the ambitious Michael Horabin, who always comes to win. Referee scored it 59-55 after six-rounds.
Featherweight Brandon Ball halted the durable Zigurds Krauklis just 33 seconds into rounf four to move up to 4-0.
Disappointment for Mo Gharib (3-1) as he suffered knockdowns in the first and third that saw a strong Dean Evans (8-26-2) get the nod 38-36 from the away corner. It was a barnstormer of a fight that saw both boxers hurt, but the knockdowns were too much of a defecit for the London lightweight to overcome and droped to his first professional defeat.
It was a dominant performance from super-lightweight ID Hill (8-2-2) as he halted Reece Smith (3-3) at 2:30 of round two.
Paul Greenidge improved to 3-0 with a shutout points victory over the experienced Lewis Van Poetsch (7-86-1).
There was further disappointment for Maidstone man Chris Lawrence (9-2) as Dmytro Kostenko (2-8-1) outworked him over four-rounds picking up the win on the ref’s scorecards at 40-37.
Haisam Ali (2-0) claimed a 40-36 victory over MJ Hall (0-23-1), who weathered some early heavy shots in a very confident and poised performance from Londoner Ali.
James Constanzo (2-0) doubled his win tally with 40-36 victory over Italian-born Londoner Victor Edagha (0-45-2), who is a lit better than his record suggests.