By Terence Crawford

Barclaycard Arena (formerly NIA), Birmingham - Revenge is a dish best served cold, but Stourbridge’s Sam “The Savage” Eggington (145½lbs) came out hot and heavy against Welshman Dale Evans (146¼lbs) when looking to avenge his 2013 decision defeat in that year’s Prizefighter: The Welterweights Quarter Final.

The defending British and Commonwealth welterweight titlist was dropped heavily by a stunning right hand in the third round yet the 22-year-old showed unreal recuperation powers in the following stanza.

It became a war of wills, each striving for dominion over the other in a bid to move onwards and upwards, with Eggington’s recent title experience, not to mention his body punching, beginning to tell as the fight progressed.

Frankie Gavin was supposed to be in the opposite corner, a foot injury ruled him out of the contest and handed Evans, 23, the chance to do the double for a brace of belts.  The double champion, though, took Evans, into deep waters and his early successes had become a distant memory.

However, Evans conjured up some success in the final round, landing solid shots in a stirring end to a grueling, keenly fought contest.

Eggington (17-2, 9 KOs) retained his title courtesy of a unanimous decision win, but he will have to tighten up if he is to overcome Gavin when their contest is rescheduled.  Evans (10-3-2, 3 early) played his part and conjured up a few scares before going down on the cards.

The Yafais went 2-0 on the night when Khalid (114½lbs) out-boxed Doncaster-based southpaw Jason Cunningham (114¼lbs) for the vacant British Super flyweight title.  Khalid maintained dominance despite whatever part of the ring he found himself in en route to the clinical decision win.

Scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 120-107 ensured that "Kal" added the Lonsdale belt to his growing collection of titles.

A former Commonwealth titlist, Yafai is now 17-0 (11) and moves on to bigger things.  Cunningham 17-3 (6) struggled to cope with his 26-year-old’s opponent’s wiles; the 26-year-old was in survival mode throughout the contest and did well to hear the final bell.