Terry Flanagan defends world title
Manchester boxer earns decision to set up unification bout
Terry Flanagan successfully defended his WBO lightweight title for the fifth time with a convincing points win over Russia's Petr Petrov.
Flanagan, whose much more solid and consistent work earned him 116-112, 120-108, 118-110 verdicts on the three scorecards, will now look towards prospective unification bouts against the likes of Vasyl Lomachenko or Jorge Linares.
Lomachenko, the 29-year-old former amateur star, is considering a move up in weight after easily defending his WBO super-featherweight title over Jason Sosa in Maryland also on Saturday night.
Flanagan remains one of the country's most low-key world champions but that would all change with a big unification win over the Ukrainian or Linares, the recent conqueror of Manchester rival Anthony Crolla.
Flanagan said: I'm confident of beating anyone in this division. Obviously Lomachenko would be coming up in weight but if anybody out there is going to beat me, it's myself.''
Liam Smith scored a controversial win over domestic rival Liam Williams, who was pulled out before the start of the 10th round with a serious eye injury which was caused by an apparent head-butt.
Williams appeared to be ahead in the bout which was nominally for the WBO interim super-welterweight title, although Smith did not win it as he scaled two pounds over the limit at Friday's weigh-in.
Smith, who was cut himself in the early stages, disputed claims that his opponent was well in command, insisting: I think the cut was an excuse to pull him out. Would you have pulled him out if you thought he was winning? He becomes world champion, don't forget.''