Nathan Heaney gets huge win over Denzel Bentley to claim British middleweight championship, Nick Ball beats Isaac Dogboe

Nathan Heaney scored a huge upset to take the British middleweight championship from an underwhelming Denzel Bentley at Manchester's Magnificent 7 event.

Heaney, the reigning WBA Continental champion, was unfancied in the build-up to the clash but the Stoke man pulled off a surprise but deserved win.

After an initially measured start to the first round, it ended with some heavier blows as the pair let loose a little, but the bell rang before anything decisive landed.

The third round was a little ragged and in the fourth both fighters showed their power, and Bentley was given a warning to avoid the back of his opponent’s head,

Heaney, six years older at 34, was well in the fight at the halfway mark despite Bentley being the favourite ahead of the clash, and the pair of them started to let their hands go with the older man looking in control.

An upset looked to be on the cards going into the eighth round, with Heaney warned by his corner that Bentley would have to start picking up the pace and look for a knockout.

Bentey did indeed start to unload but he dug deep and was able to counter, and the pair of them briefly descended into a slugfest before Heaney looked to regain the momentum as he started to showboat a little to dodge some of Bentley’s efforts.

Going into the championship rounds it appeared that Heaney was up on the cards but they ended the 11th trading vicious blows.

The 12th ended with Heaney celebrating to applause as he was carried aloft before they waited for the judges' verdict.

They gave Heaney the championship with a majority win on a 114-114, 116-113, 117-111 score.

On the undercard, Nick Ball beat Isaac Dogboe in their featherweight eliminator, Liam Davies defended his EBU super bantamweight title against Vincenzo La Famina, Harry Scarff beat Ekow Essuman to win three belts, while Ema Kozin defeated Hannah Rankin.

Ball secured a unanimous decision over Dogboe in their encounter with the Briton surviving a few scares in an otherwise dominant performance.

Ball’s legs buckled at the end of the second round with a series of left hooks from former WBC junior featherweight champion Dogboe.

Dogboe has been world champion before and with Rey Vargas, the current WBC featherweight champion, operating at junior lightweight, there was a sense that the winner could win more than just a title challenger.

Ball almost suffered a knockdown at the end of the third in the corner when he walked onto a shot but missed and stumbled, but it served as another reminder that he was not keeping his focus.

At the start of the fifth Dogboe was given a standing eight count but both fighters were sharp and exchanging powerful blows and the two started to tussle and clinch in between heavy exchanges, with Ball ultimately getting a talking-to from the ref.

By the ninth round it appeared that Ball had such a strength advantage that he was well ahead on the scores, and he started to ramp up the speed of the blows he was dealing out against Dogboe.

However, Dogboe again showed a flash of danger as he left Ball struggling with a left hook at the end of the round, but it was not enough to change the decision.

In his fight, Davies went for it from the start and La Famina’s low guard invited pressure as the British fighter landed a string of blows.

There were some heavy blows to the body with less than a minute remaining of the first round and it was the first time in the evening that it looked like a bout not might go the distance.

Davies had a small nick above his left eyebrow, and the Italian had said before the fight that he felt he needed a stoppage, rather than hope to go the distance.

In the third, La Famina was again caught and it forced a standing eight count. Davies came back at the Italian as he searched for a stoppage, but La Famina landed a counter-punch and it was the champion’s turn to take a count, too.

A left-hook at the end of the fourth round drew another standing count. Halfway through the fifth Davies found a way through the defence to unload a flurry of blows and force the referee to step in.

Earlier, Essuman and Scarff had been antagonising each other in the build-up to Saturday’s fight, as Essuman put his British, Commonwealth and IBF European welterweight belts on the line.

There was speculation that Essuman would come out of the blocks to prove a point but the pair were relatively cagey in the opening rounds, with 6’1” Scarff having a reach advantage but getting close nonetheless.

There was a fierce left elbow in the fifth round from Scarff which may have further have riled Essuman as he came out much more fiercely in the opening of the sixth.

Going into the final round it was far from clear which fighter was ahead on the scores, and Scarff landed two good left jabs and a decent right cross as he looked to pick up potentially decisive points.

Both fighters celebrated, with Scarff even being carried on his team’s shoulders before the judges came out with their decision.

The three judges were all in favour of the challenger, scoring it 116-113 117-112 115-113 for Scarff.

Talking to TNT after the fight, Carl Frampton said: “I would really hate to fight someone like Harry Scarff. He’s really unorthodox, he switches stance when there’s no need, but he tied him up when Essuman up close, he knows he did his best work up close. Massive win for Harry.”

After Scarff's win, English heavyweight champion Solomon Dacres was up against Michael Webster, and in the final round was docked a point for consistently landing a forearm on his opponent’s face in a difficult match-up.

In a tight fight for Dacres, the champion was underwhelming from the off in a scrappy encounter that went the distance, and then to the judges. The majority decision went with Dacres, but he will hope to improve after retaining his undefeated record.

Rankin and Kozin met in the card’s second fight as the Scot met her Slovenian rival to contest the WBC and WBO super welterweight belts, left vacant by Natasha Jonas.

Rankin has just six fights on her record but has rapidly improved during that time and remains in the hunt for titles, while Kozin’s only defeat to her name was against the indomitable Claressa Shields.

The first few rounds were well balanced, and it was a tough one to score for observers as neither fighter was rattled.

After eight two-minute rounds, Rankin’s trainer told his charge to step up the pace for the championship rounds.

Both fighters embraced calmly after the bell rang, but neither celebrated with gusto as they waited for the decision to come through.

The judges went with a split decision of 96-94 in favour of Rankin, 98-92 96-94 in favour of Kozin.

Speaking after the fight, TNT pundit and former world champion Frampton said that the eight-point decision in Kozin's favour was "way off the mark" given the tight nature of the clash.

In the first fight of the night earlier on, British and Commonwealth featherweight champion National Collins beat a spirited Zak Miller with a 115-113 115-113 114-114 decision win after 12 rounds.

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