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Home » Groves dominates, stops Di Luisa in five; Ryder, Hibbert triumph

Groves dominates, stops Di Luisa in five; Ryder, Hibbert triumph

Groves, making a comeback from losing to Badou Jack for the WBC super middleweight title, won every round on his way to a fifth round victory.

Di Luisa was put down in the fourth after taking considerable punishment in the first three rounds and touched the canvas twice more in the next session before his corner threw in the towel.

‘The Saint’ is heading towards a massive summer clash with a ringside Martin Murray if he can keeping winning and continue to add to his tally of 22 wins.

A dramatic twelfth round saw John Wayne Hibbert retain his Commonwealth super lightweight title in an entertaining battle with Tommy Martin.

As the contest headed to the judges, Hibbert put Martin down as both fighters went for broke to the crowd’s delight.

Martin attempted to carry on, but was counted out as he tried to get to his feet to hand Hibbert another win and halt his own unbeaten run.

Middleweight John Ryder fought a smart fight to avoid being yet another UK victim of hard-hitting Belarussian Sergey Khomitsky despite suffering a bad cut.

Ryder avoided further damage by using superior tactics to bank the rounds and see out a 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 triumph on the scorecards.

‘The Gorilla’ is now 22-2 in the paid ranks as veteran Khomitsky loses a 13th of 46 bouts since his debut back in 1999.

Ben Hall took the Southern Area super welterweight belt away from Kris Agyei-Dua to take his C.V to 8-0-1. The 22 year-old had Agyei-Dua in trouble early and capitalized in the mid-rounds to win a first career title as a pro with a sixth round stoppage.

Earlier, super featherweight Martin J Ward dropped Mario Pisanti twice before halting the Italian in three rounds to push his record to 13-0-2, whilst Reece Bellotti took seven rounds to take out Elvis Gullen at featherweight to hit 5-0.

Ohara Davies also continued his promising career in style by stopping Prince Ofotsu in three. Ofotsu touched canvas three times in the fight before the referee called off proceedings.

At 147 pounds, Ted Cheeseman moved to 3-0 with a fourth round win over Gergo Vari, whilst Lucien Reid took less than a round to get David Kovacs out of there.

There were also points victories for Deion Jumah (now 8-0), Craig Richards (3-0) and Luis Adolphe (4-0), whilst Leon McKenzie defeated Kelvin Young in the first round late on.