Isaac Chamberlain beat Mikael Lawal on points to become the new British cruiserweight champion at London’s York Hall.
Chamberlain, 29, produced a steady and composed performance over 12 rounds.
Defending champion Lawal struggled throughout and all three judges gave Chamberlain a wide points win – 119-11, 118-11, 118-111.
Lawal slumped to his first defeat in 18 fights, while Chamberlain improved his record to 16 wins and two losses.
WBO champion Chris Billam-Smith was sitting ringside commentating for the fight and suggested a rematch with Chamberlain could be in their future.
Chamberlain lost a back and forth encounter with Billam-Smith last year, nine months before his British rival won the WBO belt.
An emotional Chamberlain declined to call anyone out after his win, instead saying the victory was a testament to his belief in himself.
“When I was young I had low self-esteem but I started to believe in the ability I had. I had some niggles and injuries coming into this fight but I came through,” he said.
“Everyone fails at life, we just happen to do it in front of the whole world. You can always bounce back.”
Lawal fails to impress, Chamberlain cruises
Chamberlain and Lawal were scheduled to meet in May before the latter pulled out with an injury.
Pressure was on the domestic rivals having been promoted to main event after Dan Azeez’s fight with Joshua Buatsi was called off this week.
Lawal found himself topping the bill as the defending champion and slight favourite.
But it was Chamberlain who took charge of the occasion, never giving up the grip he had on the fight from the first round.
Lawal started slowly and in truth never got going, struggling to deal with the speed of Chamberlain.
His gameplan was clearly to wear Chamberlain down in the first half of the fight and knock him out in the second half. With 11 knockouts in 17 wins before this fight, that strategy seemed a good one.
But Chamberlain never allowed the openings to emerge and danced away from Lawal’s power shots.
His best moment came in the eighth round where he narrowly missed with a big right hand that glanced Chamberlain’s chin.
But Lawal’s final attempts to finish Chamberlain with a similarly loaded effort was met by jeers in the 11th round, and a celebrating Chamberlain in the final seconds of the fight.
It was a first career defeat for Lawal after a flat performance, while Chamberlain will consider himself firmly back in world-title contention.
Billam-Smith is likely to defend his WBO belt against Poland’s Mateusz Masternak in December, but Chamberlain will count himself among the top contenders to fight the Bournemouth man in the new year.
