Much had been made of the potential of Dutchman Gradus Kraus ahead of his Boxxer debut.

The light heavyweight contender impressed, cruising to an early win over tough Scot Boris Crighton, dropping Crighton with a duo of lefts to the body in the opening round and hurting him downstairs again just before the bell to close out the session.

Kraus left himself open on occasion but he was in no mood to hang around and he floored Crighton once more, this time to the head, in the second round. Moments later, Crighton was dropped by another body shot and referee Amy Pu waved the fight off as the towel came in from Crighton’s corner after 1:59 of the second.

Kraus is now 10-0 (9 KOs) and Crighton is 13-7 (7 KOs).

“I’m happy I could fight here and I won,” said Kraus.

Promoter Ben Shalom, high on his charge, said: “He has everything. No one does that to Boris Crighton. He’s having fun. This is a phenomenal talent. This is a world level talent. This is a crossover star… This is a future pay-per-view star. This is something very special.”

Archie Sharp, with Mark Tibbs in his corner, continued his career-rebuild after consecutive losses to Ryan Garner and Maxi Hughes, with victory over Welshman Angelo Dragone.

Sharp got his left hand working early and was too good and too polished for his opponent, who was made to miss despite his efforts to pressure Sharp. Sharp picked up a nick over his right eye in the second after heads collided but he controlled the bout, switching southpaw on occasion, and won over six rounds by 59-55.

Sharp improved to 26-2 (9 KOs), while Dragone fell to 10-13 (1 KO).

At heavyweight, London’s Brad Vickers gave Portsmouth debutant Derrick Osadolor plenty to think about, using his height and reach to good effect, before defeating the debutant over four rounds.

Osadolor was expected to impress and he couldn’t understand how Vickers, now 3-2-1 (1 KO) had done enough, but the 39-37 outcome seemed fair.

Welterweight contender Joe Kodua had too much of everything for brave Joe Garside, who was pulled out of the fight by his corner after seven rounds.

Kodua, trained by Tunde Ajayi, improved to 11-0 (3 KOs) and Garside is 9-3-3.

Junior middleweight prospect Hassan Azim stopped Sean Murray in an entertaining bout.

Hassan, who was having just his second fight in three years, is the brother of 140lbs contender Adam Azim, who was due to headline this bill at the Copper Box Arena in London but both he and opponent Gustavo Lemos were injured less than two weeks out. That fight will likely still happen but in April or May.  

Ireland’s Murray was game all the way through and he had some success but by the end of the fourth he had been cracked by several right hands and was under severe pressure. Azim carried on from where he left off in the next and both the referee and Murray’s corner gave him every chance to see out the round but Azim’s onslaught ultimately caused the intervention of ex-pro and now referee Lewis van Poetsch.

Slough’s Azim is now 9-0 (5 KOs). Murray is 3-4.