By Elliot Foster

Echo Arena, Liverpool - Terry Flanagan (30-0, 12KOs) retained his WBO lightweight championship for a second time with a twelve round unanimous decision over dangerous puncher Derry Mathews (38-10-2, 20KOs).

The scores were 177-110, 115-112 and 117-110.

The fight was rematch of their Prizefighter tournament battle from 2012, which saw Flanagan win a three round decision.

Flanagan said in the build-up that the only way that Mathews could beat him was by knocking him out and that was half-right at the ECHO Arena in Liverpool because Mathews seemingly couldn’t move him.

Derry knows himself that he didn’t do enough to rip the title away from the champion, 26, who had a point deducted in round eight, but can hold his head up high after a glittering career of 10 professional titles in 50 fights.

“People might want the fight now, with me, because I didn’t box at my best there,” said Flanagan to BoxNation after being handed the win.

“I could have boxed better, but a win’s a win. I enjoyed it in parts, thought it was funny when I was getting booed, but I got a win and that’s all that matters. There are no excuses, but I’m better than that.”

It is yet to be seen what is next for the Liverpudlian, but many have said that Flanagan, whose ring moniker is ‘Turbo’, will be back in action again by June.

boxing

ON THE UNDERCARD BY TERENCE DOOLEY

Tommy Langford (159¼lbs) and Lewis Taylor (159lbs) engaged in a bitty war of attrition for the vacant middleweight Commonwealth title most recently held by Billy Joe Saunders and Langford’s WBO Inter-Continental belt.

Neither man gained dominion over the other early on, so it became a tit for tat affair with Langford looking to land combinations and Taylor enjoying some single shot success as the stanzas sped by.

Langford’s career really picked up momentum in 2015; the Birmingham-based boxer beat Julio Cesar Avalos (W TKO 4), Cristian Fabian Rios (W 10) and Robert Swierzbinski (W TKO 5), winning and twice retaining the WBO Inter-Continental belt during that hat-trick of wins.

Tayor, though, was on a two-win streak since losing to Eamonn O’Kane in May of last year—a majority decision reverse over 12 for the IBF Inter-Continental title—so he came in buoyed by victories over Grant Cunningham and Jez Wilson (W TD 5 and TKO 5 respectively).

Despite picking up a cut over the left eye in the ninth, Langford marched forward through the slowly trickling blood to blast home a series of body shots.

Cutsman Kerry Kayes stemmed the flow between rounds, but Taylor was unable to consistently repeal the bludgeoning attacks of his determined co-challenger.  Still, he threaded home enough single shots to keep Langford honest as the fight entered the crucial championship rounds.

The bell went for the 11th round heralded Langford into new entirely territory—the win over Rios was the sole occasion that he has entered the 10th round of a fight.  Taylor has done 12 once; he pushed on early in the penultimate round only for Langford to gain a foothold going in the final minute.

Marcus McDonnell applauded both boxers as they went into the last round.  Neither man had enough pep to produce a late rally or knockdown, they held more often than in the earlier rounds as the seconds slipped away.

Scores of 118-110 (Terry O’Connor), 118-111 (Steve Gray) and 118-111 (Dave Parris) added the Commonwealth belt to Langford's trophy cabinet.  Langford progresses to 16-0 (5); Taylor drops to 18-2-1 (3).

“I won it convincingly,” Langford said.  “I could have boxed better behind my jab, used my feet better or got out of the way, instead I was pulling out and getting caught.  Credit to Taylor, better than I expected and he can come again.”

“It was a good fight, he should learn a lot from it,” added Warren.  “He’ll watch it, see his mistakes and there’s a couple of things to work on.  Big Heart, great for the fans and he’ll learn from that and hopefully by the end of the year be fighting for a world title.”

The Inter-Continental belt has lifted Langford up the WBO’s ratings, he sits at four and Warren also promotes Billy Joe Saunders so it could be a viable option for all involved if Langford adds another few wins to his W column.

Earlier in the night, Warren revealed that he believes a showdown with consensus number one, but not the linear holder, Gennady Golovkin is a stadium fight so should be placed on the back burner until 2017.  However, he also revealed that Saunders himself is chomping at the bit for the chance to meet “GGG”.

In the meantime, though, Saunders faces WBO #11 Max Bursak at London’s Copper Box Arena on April 30 in the maiden defence of the belt he won by out-pointing Andy Lee in December.

South Africa’s Zolani Tete (23-3, 19 KOs) floored Jose Santos Gonzalez (22-4, 12 early) in the second round, out-boxed the Mexican then took him out clinically at 0:37 of the seventh round.  

The former IBF Super flyweight titlist used his range, power and footwork to stay one step ahead throughout before stopping his 25-year-old foe, picking up the vacant IBF International bantamweight title in the process.

It was his first visit to Liverpool’s Echo Arena since his eight-round destruction of Paul Butler for the IBF belt in March of last year.  The knowledgeable local fight fans warmed to him, though, and promoter Frank Warren vowed that this will be the first of many fights here in the U.K. for the 28-year-old southpaw.

“Let’s talk about the U.K., Lee Haskins and Jamie Mcdonnell on the same night—that’s how good he is,” said Warren when speaking to Alex Steedman of BoxNation, who are televising tonight’s show here in the U.K.  “He’s a quality fighter.  He’ll be boxing in the U.K. regularly.”

 “The last time I was here it was a good fight,” (under)stated Tete.  “I came here, told myself I want to entertain the people of Liverpool, because they love and support boxing, and that’s what I tried to do here.”