By Alexey Sukachev

Wembley Arena, Wembley, London - IBF #14 British light welterweight champion Ashley Theophane (30-4-1, 8 KOs) successfully defended his domectis title after a spirited tenth-round knockout of rugged Welsh challenger and former European/IBO lightweight titleholder Jason Cook (28-4-1, 14 KOs). Cook proved to be quite a tough cookie for the champion and gave him a stern test, especially in the first half of the contest.

Cook, 36, pressed the action in the opening rounds, while Theophane felt very uncomfortable and often turned his back to turn away from his opponent. The reigning titlist was also rather dirty, frequently landing his punches slightly below the beltline. Theophane started to find his rhythm in the third stanza but after some mild success in round four, the champion was severely set back in the fifth when he was finally deducted a point for hitting low. Cook enjoyed a good round six but from that point on it was only the champion, who filled in the void. Theophane was a notch better in the seventh, and he was way better in the eighth, and he was just a punch or two from stopping Cook in the ninth.

The end came at 0:43 of the tenth round, after a nice combination consisting of a huge left hook, which landed halfway between Cook's solar plexus and his liver, and another huge right punch. Cook went down and was unable to get up well enough to prevent referee Phil Edwards from stopping this fight.