Terry Flanagan closed in on a money-spinning unification showdown after beating Petr Petrov on points to successfully defend his WBO lightweight title for the fifth time at the Manchester Arena.
After claiming a 116-112, 120-108, 118-110 victory on the judges’ cards, Flanagan will now hope to land a high-profile clash with either Ukrainian star Vasyl Lomachenko or Anthony Crolla’s recent conqueror, WBA lightweight world champion Jorge Linares.
He would go into any such contest having learned much from his gruelling battle against the Russian, who has been around the top level since losing a brave challenge to Marcos Maidana in 2011.
Petrov certainly gave Flanagan problems in the early stages but the Manchester man’s sharper work began to prevail and he visibly rocked his opponent with a stiff one-two in the ninth round.
Petrov was clearly not going anywhere, and continued to bull forward into the last in a vain attempt to convince the judges that he had done enough to wrest the title from the home favourite’s hands.
"Terry says he wants a big fight and there are a couple big ones out there but they are tough ones, Linares and Lomachenko," said Flanagan's promoter Frank Warren.
"I think they can be done, I'm convinced they can be done, unless Linares fights Mikey Garcia. Linares is the one I want to make and Terry's going to have to raise his game -- and he can do that.
"The tougher the opposition the more you're going to get out of him because there's a fear factor."
Lomachenko retained his WBO super featherweight world title on Saturday night in Maryland, after dominating and stopping the usually durable Jason Sosa. Linares got made on his talent a few weeks ago by dominating Crolla in their rematch. Linares is now planning to rest for a few weeks before making a decision on his next fight.
