By Elliot Foster

Gamal Yafai is targeting a busy 2018 after ending this year with an early finish.

The former Commonwealth super-bantamweight champion is expected to return in January after a win at York Hall.

Yafai, now 13-0, stopped Liverpool’s Ricky Starkey after one minute and 59 seconds of the third round, exclusively live on Sky Sports’ Facebook page as part of the undercard to Katie Taylor’s WBA female lightweight title defence against Jessica McCaskill.

And his promoter Eddie Hearn has talked about a fight between Yafai and former super-bantamweight WBC world title challenger Gavin McDonnell.

Yafai wants more rounds but the team –– and Hearn in particular –– wants to make a fight between him and McDonnell soon, stating that it could happen on the undercard of Kell Brook’s return on March 3 at the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield, exclusively live on Sky Sports, against Sergey Rabchenko.

Meanwhile, Felix Cash moved to 7-0 with a first-round victory over Greg O’Neill, with the fight being ended after just 54 seconds.

IN OTHER NEWS: Stephen Tiffney believes he will have an edge over Edinburgh rival Lewis Paulin in their Scottish featherweight title clash this weekend.

Undefeated Tiffney (8-0) and Paulin (10-0) top a ‘Christmas Cracker’ fight card at the Lagoon Centre in Paisley on Saturday night, with the former amateur foes set to renew hostilities for domestic honours at professional level.

The pair will do battle in a scheduled 10-rounder for the vacant Scottish title a little under five years on from Tiffney’s 20-11 points victory over Paulin in the 2013 national amateur championships.

“It puts a bit more on the line because we know a lot about each other and two local lads going at it makes it a bit more exciting,” said Tiffney on clashing with his old sparring partner.

“We’ve trained and sparred quite a lot together in the past and we fought in the amateurs a few years ago in the national championships as well, so we know each other really well.