Normal service was resumed at London’s York Hall as Sam Noakes stopped Italy’s Gianluca Ceglia to successfully defend his European lightweight title.
It wasn’t rip-roaring, crowd pleasing stuff from Noakes – who also holds the British and Commonwealth lightweight titles – but he had a comfortable night’s work and busted up Ceglai. After being taken the distance for the first time by Yvan Mendy in April, Noakes, 15-0 (14 KOs), will be happy to have started another run of knockouts.
Noakes looked strong as he calmly pressed forward whilst the skittish Ceglia, 21-5-1 (4 KOs), was a ball of nervous energy. He scored with a jab but even though Noakes took time to get rolling, the Italian looked wary of the 27-year-old’s power.
This was Cegila’s second stab at the prestigious title but he certainly didn’t appear to have turned up in London with a grim determination to seize the belt. He wore a concerned look on his face and struggled to keep his mouthpiece in as Noakes tried to find a gap in his high held guard.
Ceglia put tighter a short burst to start the third but Noakes absorbed them and began to look toward the 34-year-old’s body. Having boxed within himself, Noakes began to rediscover his attacking form in the fourth. He started to put more weight into his shots and he began to bull Ceglia to the ropes a little more regularly.
Still, it wasn’t high octane action. Noakes was throwing twice as many punches as Ceglia but his best results came from well placed and well timed shots to the body. Ceglia’s high held guard would drop and Noakes then had a bigger target to aim for upstairs.
Finally, in the seventh, Ceglia’s resistance started to wane. He would voluntarily sag back to the ropes more and more regularly and his output dropped to almost nothing. Noakes picked up a slight nick over his left eye when heads came together but had letters fully in control.
Ceglia was in survival mode and although he wasn’t taking a series of damaging shots, he was being steadily broken down. He slumped down onto his stool at the end of the eighth with a swollen and damaged right eye and informed his corner that he couldn’t continue.
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