John Ryder has won the interim WBO super-middleweight title after Zach Parker withdrew from their bout after the fourth round.
While the pair were fighting with the possibility of being upgraded to world champion at a future date, there was also the carrot of potentially being Saul Alvarez's next opponent in late spring.
Ryder now seems to be the favourite for that fight after benefitting from Parker having to pull out of a showdown which was growing in excitement due to a broken hand.
Both fighters had success during the opening stages of the bout, but it was Ryder who landed the most significant blow towards the end of the fourth, a left hook which led to Parker encountering trouble.
However, Parker would walk over to Ryder before the start of the fifth, citing that he was unable to continue due to a broken hand.
Although the main event at the O2 Arena was an anti-climax, Ryder will not care as he sets himself up for a lucrative pay-day if Alvarez opts to fight at super-middleweight in his next outing.
Meanwhile, Hamzah Sheerez moved closer to a major fight in the middleweight division after comprehensively outclassing River Wilson-Bent to win the WBC Silver title.
After Sheeraz landed a heavy right and left in the corner in the second round, Wilson-Bent went down, and the referee took the decision to wave off the fight with no complaints coming from the felled fighter.
Dennis McCann collected the biggest title of his career as he recorded an eighth-round stoppage of Joe Ham to claim the Commonwealth super-bantamweight belt.
Having enjoyed the better of the fight throughout, McCann stepped on the accelerator in rounds seven and eight before a flurry of punches led to the referee waving off the bout. body check tags ::
