CHEAVON CLARKE passed the toughest test of his career to date with flying colours as he dropped and stopped David Jamieson inside five vicious rounds.
The cruiserweight prospect, who boxed at the Tokyo Olympics, has enjoyed a serene start to his professional career but it was suggested that Jamieson could provide him with something to think about.
But Clarke produced a punch-perfect display at the Wembley Arena to move to 6-0 with all but one coming inside the distance.
He made a fast start here and was landing with heavy right hands, particularly to the body, but he seemed to really hurt Jamieson with a left hook in the third.
Worse was to come for the visitor from East Kilbride who was dropped to his knee via a pinpoint right hand to the chin halfway through the fourth. He climbed to his feet in time to beat the count but endured a painful end to the round as Clarke unloaded with both hands.
The writing was on the wall as the fifth round started and Clarke got straight back to business. It was a trademark right uppercut that dropped Jamieson for a second time and, although he beat the count for a second time, referee Bob Williams decided to wave it off. The official time of the stoppage was 0:35 of round five.
Clarke said: “He said he was going to knock me out so I had a point to prove.
“I thought my performance was ok. You saw a little bit of what I can do, but there’s plenty more to come.”
The fight was an eliminator for the British cruiserweight title currently held by Mikael Lawal but Clarke’s promoter Eddie Hearn, who used to promote Chris Billam-Smith, believes the Jamaica-born puncher is ready for the new WBO champion already.
Hearn said: “I love Chris Billam-Smith but I think he beats him already. I think he can mix it with world champions now.”
Earlier Nina Hughes made a routine defence of her WBA bantamweight title against late replacement Katie Healy.
Hughes, who won the title in November by beating Jamie Mitchell in one of the biggest shocks in women’s boxing last year, was supposed to face Shannon Courtenay here at Wembley Arena.
But when Courtenay withdrew due to an injury a few weeks ago, 6-0 Healy was drafted in to fight for the world title. However she was soundly beaten by Hughes, the far shorter of the two, who used good head movement to close the distance and land with overhand rights.
“I was just working on getting close and going to the body,” she said. “I felt comfortable I was winning each round. We knew it would be tough but I stuck to the plan.”
Judges Howard Foster and Luigi Boscarelli both scored it a 100-90 shut-out while Bertrand Chagnoux had it 99-91.
Before that, Reece Bellotti breathed new life into his career with a hard-fought 10-round decision victory over Youssef Khoumari.
Bellotti lost three on the bounce between 2019 and 2021 but got back to winning ways in April of last year. And now 14 months on he repeated the trick when all three judges scored in his favour.
Phil Edwards scored it 97-94, Kieran McCann 97-93 and Bob Williams 96-94 handing the 32-year-old a much-needed victory while Khoumari slipped to his second defeat in his last four outings.