By Elliot Foster
Dillian Whyte cruised to victory over heavyweight rival Dave Allen.
The Brixton man kept up his run of wins since losing to Anthony Joshua last December as he picked up the vacant WBC International belt in Leeds.
Whyte, who is now 18-1 (14 KOs), moved on from his win against Ivica Bacurin in June to outpoint the formerly undefeated Conisbrough man with scores of 100-91, 100-90, 99-91, exclusively live on Sky Sports.
In truth, it was an easy win for the more experienced man, as the tallies showed, but Allen, who slipped to 9-1-1 (3 KOs) in defeat will undoubtedly come back to do good things in the sport.
“Everyone thought I was coming for a war but I showed them I can box,” Whyte said afterwards. “I outskilled and outclassed him to show that I’m not just a warrior and that I can use my boxing skills.”
Allen, 24, was very gracious in defeat against his 28-year-old counterpart and, despite a heated build-up, insisted that there was no bad blood between the pair.
He said: “There was never any disrespect [between us]. I’m in this sport to fight the best and I regard him as one of the best not just in Britain but the world.
“Two things let me down tonight: inexperience and losing to the better man.”
ALSO ON THE CARD
Tyrone Nurse kept hold of his title in a barnstormer.
The Huddersfield man retained the British super-lightweight title with a points victory in Leeds, live on Sky Sports.
Nurse outpointed Tommy Coyle, who was looking to become Hull’s first ever British champion, at the First Direct Arena to advance to 34-2-1 (7 KOs).
Coyle, who slips to 22-4 with 10 early in defeat, started quickly and was ahead before slickster Nurse found his groove midway through.
Eventually, the 26-year-old took over in the first Sky Sports-aired contest of the undercard of Josh Warrington’s featherweight fight against Patrick Hyland and ended up taking the fight on all three cards by margins of 115-113 twice & 116-112.
Hull man Coyle , who was fighting for the first time since revealing his official step up to 140lbs, was gutted to lose the fight but there are plenty of options out there for him.
Victor Nurse, meanwhile, now has a decision to make regarding his future. He has a mandatory challenger on the table in the shape of undefeated WBO Inter-Continental champion Jack Catterall and a win would see him own the British title outright.
But you could argue that he is now past that level and could move on to European and eventually world title fights.
