Constantin Ursu became the new British welterweight champion, as he outscored Owen Cooper in an action-packed 12-rounder, also defending his Commonwealth title for a second time at the Vaillant Live in Derby on Saturday.
Cooper (11-2, 4 KOs) was coming off a win in Nottingham, outscoring Chris Kongo over 10 rounds last May, while Ursu (15-0, 6 KOs) took the vacant Commonwealth crown last March, and defended in November, where he also picked up the vacant WBO European crown with a wide points win against Ryan Amos at York Hall.
Ursu dominated the opening four rounds, utilising cleaner work and getting the better of the exchanges, and Cooper was second to the punch in the main, and was struggling to get a foothold in the contest.
The 25-year-old was able to time Cooper’s attacks, and by round six, he was boxing with his hands down at times, as the Worcester man tried desperately to close the gap on his rival.
Cooper started to fight with more urgency in the seventh, and it was his best round to date as he caught Ursu, but the Commonwealth champion held firm, and got back to his slick boxing in the eighth, before the two went back-and-forth in round nine.
Ursu caught a cracking right hand from Cooper in the tenth, and the 25-year-old was rallying, but going into the final round, it looked like he may have left his effort too late.
Ursu stuck to his boxing, and impressively rounded off a polished performance with a dominant final round as the fight went to the scorecards.
Two scores of 118-110, and a third at 116-112 confirmed a superb win for the Plymouth man.
McCormack sees off Gardner
Former Olympian Luke McCormack (5-0, 3 KOs) went into a scheduled 10-rounder for the first time, and the welterweight secured a comfortable points win against the experienced Kane Gardner (18-6, 7 KOs).
Two scores of 100-90, and a third at 99-92 reflected McCormack’s dominance.
Remaining Undercard
Ben Fail (11-0, 6 KOs) also went up to 10-round level, and he took a seventh-round stoppage win against the tough Mason Cartwright (23-5-1, 9 KOs) in a real back-and-forth encounter at super welterweight.
The only eight-rounder came at flyweight, where Roy Jones Jr-trained, Tony Curtis (13-1, 3 KOs) came through 80-72 against Jemsi Kibazange (21-15-4, 8 KOs).
In six-rounders, Charlie Senior (4-0, 2 KOs) dropped Jesus Carrasco (2-3-1) in the opening round in their meeting at featherweight, and then completed the job in the fifth, while at heavyweight, Lewis Williams (4-0, 1 KO) won all available sessions against Ben Vickers (3-3-1, 1 KO).
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At super lightweight, Reese Lynch (3-0, 1 KO) pitched a shutout win over Dan Booth (6-20, 3 KOs), and Lasha Guruli (3-0, 1 KO) did the same against Benito Sanchez Garcia (17-17-4, 5 KOs).
In four-round contests, Joe Cooper (6-0) won every round against Serge Ambomo (13-71-3, 4 KOs) at middleweight, and super lightweight debutant, Ellis Panter (1-0) thrilled his travelling support with a points win against Garth Noot (1-16-2, 1 KO).
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