Martin Murray becomes British king

It was coronation night at Wigan's Robin Park Centre as crisp punching middleweight Martin Murray took the British title throne at middleweight.

The 28-year-old from St Helens rode out Nick Blackwell's flashy early attacks before grinding the young Trowbridge man down over five rounds.

Picking up that beautiful Lonsdale belt is just one of the ambitions that Murray has dreamed of since he first laced up the gloves as a youngster.

And the performance highlighted the fact that he is not far off the tails of world class Britons Matthew Macklin and Darren Barker.

Blackwell, fighting for his second title at the tender age of 20, had looked confident as he faced up to his conqueror before the opening bell.

But, despite throwing punches in bunches, his face was slowly turning to one of despair by the end of the second session.

Murray was patient but punishing with his shots. He'd wait for Blackwell to tee off, block with his gloves and forearms, and then land devastating counters.

Bravely Blackwell battled on. However, by the end of the fourth he was shipping punches with increasing regularity and, despite a spirited fifth, his corner elected to retire him on his stool.

At his current age and with this only being his ninth pro contest, Blackwell has time to regroup and come again.

For Murray, it will now be a case of trying to win the British crown outright. Messrs. Macklin and Barker are moving onto the world stage so a possible marquee bout for the St Helens puncher could come in a Merseyside derby with Paul Smith, who is moving back to middleweight after being domestic champion at 12 stone.

Another British champion with his eyes on retaining and winning further titles is Manchester's Anthony Crolla.

The exciting lightweight added the WBA Inter-Continental bauble to his collection with a one round blow out of late Belgian call up Herve De Luca.

Crolla, who is a former ABA champion, is targeting a showdown with Newbridge's recently crowned European kingpin Gavin Rees and showed his value with a performance straight out of the Ricky Hatton school of body punching.

De Luca, called in on 48 hours notice after Osumana Akaba was withdrawn, dropped to one knee after a double left hook had landed early in the round.

Not long after the restart a left hand set up a right to the ribcage and once more the Belgian found himself crouched down as referee Terry O'Connor tolled the count over him.

Bravely he clambered back to his feet and attempted to battle on but Crolla was like a shark that had sensed blood and with just one second left in the opening round he detonated another hurtful shot to the torso, sending the visitor to the mat for a third and final time.

"Genius" Joe Murray picked up his first title in the paid ranks by widely out-pointing the tougher than expected Scot James Ancliff over 12 rounds.

Featherweight Murray, 24, had been scheduled to box George Gachechiladze for the IBF's youth title until a late change of plan saw him square off with Leeds-based Aberdeen native Ancliff for the same organisation's International crown.

Murray, the younger of sibling of ex-British and European lightweight boss John, waited for Ancliff to come forward in the early rounds before punishing him with perfectly timed uppercuts.

By the third, the flame haired 2008 Beijing Olympian had added fast double hooks and a sweeping left to his repertoire.

The fourth, though, saw his confidence get the better of him as he allowed Ancliff the time to fire off a left hook to the head. Murray took the shot well even though he temporarily staggered.

And while it may have made a few people in the crowd "ooh", neither Murray or his trainer Joe Gallagher seemed overly concerned and blamed the incident on Joe's footwear rather than Ancliff's power.

Spurred on by that moment of success Ancliff continued to plough forwards with wild hooks in each proceeding round, but Murray deflected the blows before coming back with better ones of his own.

Judges Howard Foster and John Keane gave Murray something in every session by posting scores of 120 - 109 and 120 -110 respectively, while Terry O'Connor had it 118-111.

The super-middleweight clash between Accrington's Luke "Robbo" Blackledge and debutant Adam Stretton was a riveting four-round affair.

Blackledge, a former kickboxer, steamed into his opponent from the off, dropping him in ring centre with a hard right to the side of the head.

Stretton clambered back up to his feet but looked weary as Blackledge stormed forward to tag him with more two-fisted assaults. Indeed, this looked like a contest that would not last long.

However, the first-timer got into the swing of things in the second. Although he was bleeding profusely from the nose, he was willing to ride out heavy weather to get off his own punches.

What followed was several minutes of in close action with Blackledge doing enough to shade each round before he was handed a 40-35 mark from referee Steve Gray.

Dale Miles' berth for Hatton Promotions went as he'd hoped. The Alfreton puncher dropped Reading-based Albanian Ibrar Riyaz with a right hand in the first before more devastating blows forced a retirement at the end of the fourth.

Southpaw Miles now has a record 11 straight wins with eight stoppages and is surely knocking on the door of title class.

Swankirks' Steve Jevons took his slate to 6 - 0 (0 KOs) with a 39-37 win over well travelled Brummie Jason Nesbitt.

As in recent outings Nesbitt had a good go but was ultimately outdone by his opponents higher work rate.

On the show opener, unbeaten Dudley super-feather Chris Male picked up win number 11 when a badly swollen eye forced the retirement of Newcastle's Dougie Curran before the start of the fourth.

Curran, who scored an upset over Davey Savage Jnr earlier this year, came to be the party pooper once again and made the opening session a competitive one.

But a round later Male really stamped his authority with a crisp left hook that had Curran nursing a damaged peeper. Male ratcheted up the pressure on the wound in the third and final frame until it got to the stage where the Geordie could barely see out of it.