By Elliot Foster
Liam Walsh retired his mandatory challenger to retain his British and Commonwealth titles.
The super featherweight took eight rounds at the Copper Box Arena, after just under 10 months out of the ring, to stop Troy James.
Walsh, from Cromer, remained unbeaten after ending the valiant challenge of the Coventry man, exclusively live on BoxNation, as part of the same bill on which Hughie Fury claimed his first professional title with a technical decision victory over Fred Kassi.
He dropped his man, who had been in action just once in 19 months before this fight, in the third round and was on top thereafter.
But James fought through the pain and landed a few good shots of his own, despite being caught with a nasty body shot in round six.
However, it was an accumulation of blows midway through what turned out to be the final round that forced the corner of James to throw in the towel and save their man for another day.
In defeat, James slips to 18-3-1 (5 KOs), while the champion Walsh moved on to 20-0 (14) in his first fight since he beat Brazil’s Isaias Santos Sampaio at the Velodrome in Manchester last July to win the vacant WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title.
