Ebanie Bridges claimed the IBF bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Maria Cecilia Roman on the Martinez-Warrington card in Leeds. 

There has been a lot of abuse aimed at British judges over the last few months, but Don Trella, served up a bizarre 100-91 card for Bridges. The other two, Phil Edwards and Alejandro Lopez Cid, scored it 97-93, which was fear enough. 

It was Bridges’s workrate in the first half of the fight that saw he build up a big lead and while Roman came back in the second half, it was not enough. 

Roman, 39, had won the title in 2017, although this was the first time she had defended it outside her homeland. 

For the first two rounds, Bridges was the busier, although she tended to smother her work as the pair stood right in front of each other. 

Bridges stepped on the gas at the start of the third, creating some space and attacking the body. They went back to the close-quarters stuff in the fourth, although Roman tried more to match Bridges’s output. 

Bridges began the fifth boxing, but was dragged back into a scrap as Roman finished the round well. 

By the seventh it was getting very ragged. In the eight, Bridges tried leading off but was leaving herself wide open for Roman’s counters and the round ended with the best action to date as the both opened up. 

Bridges tried to keep the workrate up in the ninth, but she looked tired and Roman was coming in strong. Bridges kept punching until the final bell. 

The referee was Bob Williams. 

Maxi Hughes made a successful first defence of his IBO lightweight title with a wide unanimous points decision. 

Hughes, who is enjoying a fine autumn to his career, won the IBO belt last September by beating Jovanni Straffon. Walsh’s main problem was that he had spent most of his career boxing as a featherweight. 

It was an interesting enough boxing match with few highlights. Walsh came forward throughout, but Hughes always had the answer, even if neither boxer was ever really in trouble. 

The scores were massively one-sided, with Jerome Lades giving Hughes every round in his 120-108 card. Marcus McDonnell give Walsh a round (119-109), while Grzegorz Molenda gave him two (118-110). The referee was Steve Gray. 

For most of the first round, Hughes worked behind the jab, although he did get through with two meaty hooks. Walsh had more success in the second as he got under Hughes’s guard, but the first big punch from either came from Hughes in the third as he landed a clubbing right that shifted Walsh on his feet. 

But in the main it became formulaic. Walsh would come forward and Hughes would edge away, pumping the southpaw right jab and giving next to no openings. If Walsh was caught leaning in, Hughes would land a sharp left but ambition by the champion strayed little beyond collecting the points. 

There were times when Walsh scored well, particularly with the jab, but Hughes moved, ducked, tucked up and the more Walsh opened up, the better Hughes looked, as he ducked under Walsh’s shots and countered. 

In the tenth round, a clash of heads left Walsh cut on the hairline. But Hughes was never troubled and cruised to his decision. 

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.