British lightweight champion Jonathon Thaxton made a successful first defense of his Britsh lightweight title with a 7th round TKO victory.

In an entertaining fight, Thaxton was made to work all the way by the challenger and current English champion Scott Lawton. Thaxton was maybe a bit over eager but he put the challenger under pressure in the first round and steadied Lawton with an overhand right.

Lawton began to find his way into the fight more in the second round as Thaxton found the height and reach of the challenger a problem.

Over the next few rounds Thaxton continued to apply pressure but he found the height and reach advantage of Lawton a problem and was picked off at times. Both man had success with bodyshots during the course of the bout and we had some exciting two way action.

Going into the 7th i had Thaxton ahead 4-2 and in this round he landed a big overhand right that left Lawton with a bad cut in the middle of his forehead. The doctor took a look and allowed the fight to continue but it was a bad cut and Lawtons face was covered in blood.

On the resumption Lawton in a brave last stand went right at Thaxton and began to trade with the harderhitting champion. Unfortunately for Scott this led to him being nailed by a peach of a right hand. Lawton managed to stay on his feet but he was clearly hurt and the referee halted the action awarding Thaxton the TKO victory.



Thaxton will move on now looking towards higher honours, though he first plans to take outright ownership of a Lonsdale belt with a couple more successful defenses. While Lawton though coming up short this time certainly proved he belonged at this level and will be hopeful of getting another crack, should Thaxton indeed vacate the belt to go in search of higher honours.







In undercard action Esham 'Brown Sugar' Pickering regained the British super-bantam weight title with victory over Marc Callaghan. Pickering won in a stroll with a very wide points victory. Callaghan never stopped walking forward but he was simply out of his depth here. Pickering won every round on two of the judges cards while the third charitably gave Callaghan a share of one.