Brighton, UK - In a battle of unbeaten heavyweights, Tommy Welch (12-0, 7 KO’s) proved far too good for the wild Jonathan Exequiel Vergara (5-1, 3 KO’s). 

Welch quickly hurt Exequiel with a left hook and his follow up attack pushed the Argentine to the floor. Exequiel jumped straight back into the fray but his attacks were much wider and wider than Welch’s. The man from Brighton bided his time and put Vergara over again with a big overhand right.

Exequiel lost his shape completely in the second, but Welch kept his composure and technique, landing the much cleaner, straighter punches. Exeqiuel soon lost his head too, turning away after a clash of heads and getting a stern warning for using his own head as a weapon few seconds later. 

Exequiel doesn’t exactly fight with a poker face, and he became even wilder as the fight went on. Every time he was pushed onto the back foot, he looked extremely vulnerable, and he found himself on the floor again in the fourth after another right hand. Vergara beat the count, but Welch piled straight back in and landed two left hooks to the body to drop Vergara for the fourth and final time. The towel came in at 1.03 of the fourth.

Lerrone Richards got back in the winner's circle with a comfortable eight round decision victory over Mickey Ellison. Their eight rounder was fought at the light heavyweight limit. 

Richards has been plagued by inactivity and is hoping that his recent decision to sign with Wasserman will kickstart his career. The former British, Commonwealth, European and IBO super middleweight champion has boxed once since outpointing Carlos Gongora in December 2021 but got straight back into his groove against Central Area champion, Ellison.

Richards’ southpaw jab found its mark straight away and he put his left behind it accurately too before quickly stepping back out of range. Ellison is more route one and his attacks were just too slow and predictable for the elusive Richards.

Richards is an outstanding technical fighter but has attracted criticism for not putting his foot on the gas when he has a fighter worked out. That pattern continued through three rounds, but Richards began to put more weight in his shots in the fourth. The jab was still sharp, but the straight left hand definitely had more weight behind it and it thudded into Ellison’s face as the man from Blackburn walked forwards.

Nonetheless, Ellison refused to be dominated easily and showed just enough resistance to prevent Richards from fully committing to his attacks. Richards reverted to type and was content to jab, move and land the occasional straight left hand.

Boxing purists will appreciate every move Richards makes. He is extremely good at what he does and will be very hard to beat but, again, he didn’t set many pulses racing. 

The 79-74 scorecard in his favor was a formality.