By Elliot Foster
James Tennyson added another belt to his collection after retiring his late replacement foe.
The Irish super-featherweight champion was handed the vacant WBA International belt after Ryan Doyle was withdrawn by his corner at the end of six rounds at the SSE Arena in Belfast, exclusively live on Sky Sports.
Tennyson had some shaky moments in the fight against ‘Ruthless’ Ryan, who was given just four days’ notice for the fight and was instead expecting a six-round contest next week, but he overcame those to win a very enjoyable and gruelling fight.
At the time of the stoppage, the three scoring judges had the eventual winner up by margins of 58-56, 58-56, 59-55.
‘Tenny’, 23, now moves on to 19-2 with 15 early, while Doyle unfortunately slips to 14-2-1 with eight early.
Meanwhile, Luke Watkins stopped Ian Tims to win the vacant Irish cruiserweight title.
The Paddy Fitzpatrick-trained man had the majority of the fight, despite ‘Timsey’ being afforded moments of success, before a thumping combination which was finished sensationally with a right hand, rendering Tims unable to continue, forced the referee to wave the fight off after one minute and 30 seconds of the fourth round.
And earlier in the card, there were wins Eamonn Magee’s nephew Sean, who ousted Jules Phillips inside a round on his debut, and Paddy Gallagher, while Feargal McCrory, Tyrone McCullagh, Matthew Wilton and Padraig McCrory all got victories.