It was Scott Fitzgerald who emerged triumphant from his light-middleweight grudge match with Anthony Fowler via split-decision.
In an tactical showdown that ultimately degenerated into a wildly dramatic battle, Fowler – a significant pre-fight favourite buoyed no doubt by the vociferous home support – took the attacking initiative early but Fitzgerald maintained a distinct composure under pressure and consistently returned fire in the early jab exchanges.
Fitzgerald had the look of someone in control throughout the middle rounds as Fowler struggled to pin a compact, disciplined Fitzgerald down and stop the Preston native in his tracks with the same kind of vicious combinations that had seen him stop 9 of his 8 victims.
Nevertheless, Fowler betrayed a sense of urgency in the penultimate round and visibly hurt his counterpart with some choice shots in the body, but an equally tenacious Fitzgerald displayed impressive resilience to withstand the onslaught and drop Fowler heavily with a series of left hooks in the final round before securing victory via split-decision to settle a score that had been festering for months.
Fitzgerald now has his sights set on European champion Sergio Garcia alongside domestic rival Ted Cheeseman, but given the exhilarating nature of this scrap many fans would presumably be keen to see a rematch.
David Price emerged victorious from his highly-anticipated heavyweight fight with Kash Ali in thoroughly bizarre circumstances.
The previously undefeated Ali, of Rotherham, was disqualified in the fifth round for biting after previously being deducted a point for the same offence.
Price started the bout in aggressive fashion as the back-pedalling Ali found success with jabs to the body and appeared to initially cut a composed figure under the pressure applied by his more experience counterpart.
Ali was able to spoil and make things messy as Price struggled to make an impact with his famed power, but despite a fairly promising couple of rounds, Ali was warned by the referee for apparently biting in the third as both fighters began to tire.
A meaty right hand from the Liverpudlian found the mark in the fifth before Price was bundled to the canvas and inexplicably bit once again.
Having clearly seen enough, the referee disqualified Ali immediately afterwards whilst a slightly bemused Price expressed a willingness to face the winner of Dave Allen’s heavyweight showdown with Lucas Browne in April.
Robbie Davies prevailed unanimously over Joe Hughes to unify the British and European light-welterweight titles.
In a spirited, extremely closely-contest affair – in which Hughes enjoyed consistent success with the left hook – Davies was the beneficiary of a hugely controversial 118-110 verdict from Terry O’Connor alongside more accurate scorecards of 115-113 and 115-114 in his favour.