Kal Yafai put down Everth Briceno three times but eventually had to settle for a landslide points victory over the veteran Nicaraguan at the 3Arena in Dublin.
The Birmingham boxer was taken into the championship rounds for the first time in his career as he successfully retained his IBF Inter-Continental super flyweight belt on the undercard to Matthew Macklin’s clash with Jorge Sebastian Heiland.
Briceno was a former world title challenger who had also gone 11 rounds with Leo Santa Cruz, though he arrived in England having only fought twice in the last two years.
When he failed to make weight in the build-up to the bout it might have been easy to suggest the 36-year-old wouldn’t put up much resistance against such an up-and-coming opponent.
Yet despite being dropped by a body shot once in the fifth round and then twice more in the eighth, as well as having a point deducted for low blows, Briceno showed tremendous heart to make it all the way through to the final bell.
Yafai did his best to try and record a 10th stoppage success, the left hook in below Briceno’s ribs always looking a potential finisher, but eventually had to wait for the judges to decide the outcome.
As expected, the scores were heavily in his favour, one official marking it 120-104 with the other two recording verdicts of 119-106 and 118-105 for the impressive Yafai.
"I learned more in that fight than my previous 12," Yafai told Sky Sports after stretching his professional record to 13-0. "I learned he was tough, he had a hard head, hurt my hands a lot. It was a brilliant experience for me."
