O2 Undercard Delivers Exciting Fights and Drama

The O2 undercard did its job. Before Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic tore into each other for the vacant IBF heavyweight title, a wild, bloody, occasionally brutal supporting cast turned the arena into a pressure cooker.

By the time the main event began, the tone had been set.

Vianello and Jolly trade blood and pride in tight draw

Guido Vianello vs Moses Jolly was supposed to be a solid heavyweight opener. It turned into a small war.

From the first bell, both men fought like they knew the cameras were rolling early and the division was watching. Jolly, the bigger man and unbeaten Welsh prospect, went downstairs with purpose, ripping at Vianello’s body. The Italian answered with the cleaner, eye-catching shots upstairs.

The tension spilled into violence in the second. Both were cut, both were swinging ragged combinations that looked ugly but carried real danger. Jolly twice crashed in with savage overhand rights that Vianello somehow absorbed amid the clinches and wrestling. The Welshman’s response? A kiss blown to the crowd and a little dance in the corner. He looked like a man enjoying himself.

That early body work began to tell. By the middle of the fourth, Vianello was gulping for air, his pace sagging, but he kept himself alive with smart counters and neat work inside. Jolly still looked the boss, yet the Italian refused to fold.

The pattern flipped in the sixth. Jolly’s output dropped to single jabs, his tempo fading, and Vianello seized his moment. He started timing the Welshman on the way in as both men’s technique frayed with fatigue.

They emptied what was left in the final round. No clean finish, no dramatic knockdown, just two heavyweights trying to will themselves over the line. The referee’s card came back 76-76 – a draw. It felt harsh on Jolly, who had dominated the early going, but Vianello’s late rally kept him from leaving London with another defeat on his record.

Ursu survives a blood-soaked defense against relentless Vaughan

If the opener was wild, Constantin Ursu vs Ben Vaughan was downright savage.

Ursu arrived as the newly crowned British welterweight champion, fresh off his win over Owen Cooper. Vaughan came in as the challenger with a point to prove after losing a decision to Bobby Dalton for the English title. From the opening bell, it was Vaughan who imposed himself.

The first two rounds belonged to the Englishman. He roughed up Ursu, crowded him, chopped at the body. Ursu hunted for his rear uppercut, head and body, but Vaughan smothered much of his work. The champion’s jab still made its mark, snapping Vaughan’s head back and bloodying his nose, yet he kept getting clipped by shots he shouldn’t have been taking.

Vaughan’s plan was obvious and effective: take the legs from under Ursu. He dug in heavy to the body, looking to sap the champion’s strength and drag him into deep water.

The tide turned in the fifth. Ursu finally found his rhythm and his accuracy. A sharp attack opened a nasty cut above Vaughan’s left eye, blood spilling down into the challenger’s vision. Sensing weakness, Ursu let his hands go and finished the round in command.

Then came a brutal sixth. Ursu picked up a cut of his own over the right eye, and the ring became a slick of red. Neither man took a backward step. They traded with abandon, but Ursu’s punches carried the greater venom and snap.

Both fighters rose for the eighth caked in each other’s blood. Before they could settle, the referee and ringside doctor intervened, examining Vaughan’s damaged eye. The verdict was swift: the cut was too severe. The fight was over.

Ursu retained his British and Commonwealth welterweight titles via eighth-round TKO. Vaughan walked away beaten but not diminished, having pushed the champion hard enough to raise serious questions about Ursu’s leaky defense. For now, though, the belts stay with him.

Hysa flattens ‘The Last Viking’ in a blink

The heavyweights returned, and Nelson Hysa didn’t bother hanging around.

The undefeated Albanian, holder of the WBO Global title, stepped in with Thomas “The Last Viking” Narmo, another unbeaten puncher boasting 14 fights and 14 knockouts. On paper, it was a collision of wrecking balls.

In reality, only one man landed.

The opening exchanges were tentative. Two huge men pawed with jabs, probing for openings. Narmo looked vulnerable every time he tried to exit range, chin high, balance loose. Hysa spotted it, flashed a knowing grin, and bided his time.

When the second round began, the wait ended. Hysa uncorked a thudding overhand right that detonated on Narmo’s chin and toppled the Norwegian. “The Last Viking” beat the count, but his legs and eyes told the truth. The referee waved it off before the inevitable damage followed.

Hysa moved to 25-0, his aura as a heavyweight danger man intact and his WBO Global belt still strapped around his waist.

Noakes outworks Berinchyk in high-level chess match

The chief support fight carried a sense of what-might-have-been.

Denys Berinchyk walked in as a former WBO lightweight champion, his belt gone after a knockout defeat to Keyshawn Davis. Across from him stood Sam Noakes, back under the big lights after his punishing loss to Abdullah Mason. A quick two-round stoppage win at York Hall had reset him; this was the real test.

From the start, Berinchyk boxed like a man who had learned some harsh lessons. He stayed on his bike, circling, dipping, sliding away from danger. His jab, neat and educated, flicked out as he refused to plant his feet for long.

Noakes brought spite. Every punch came with bad intentions, but he struggled to find the target cleanly in the early going. The Ukrainian used the large ring brilliantly, gliding around the perimeter, picking spots to counter when Noakes closed the distance.

In the fourth, Berinchyk switched southpaw and found success with sharp left hands that snapped Noakes’ head back. The Englishman kept trying to drag him into a dogfight, edging closer, digging to the body whenever he could. He knew he had to slow those spring-loaded legs.

The fifth round marked a shift. Noakes began to trap Berinchyk in the corners, fencing him in with a stiff jab and following with combinations to head and body. The exchanges were competitive, but the Brit refused to be discouraged by what came back his way.

Gradually, Noakes shrank the ring. The former Olympic silver medallist found himself with fewer escape routes, forced into the kind of exchanges he’d been trying to avoid. As Berinchyk’s face reddened, the momentum drifted towards the younger man.

Berinchyk’s fast hands still demanded respect. Noakes often had to take one to land one, yet the Ukrainian started to look uncomfortable under the size and strength pressing down on him. Noakes wisely invested more to the body, chipping away at his rival’s movement.

Heading into the final round, the fight felt close but tilted towards Noakes, who had simply done more and landed more across the majority of the rounds. Berinchyk responded with a late push, staying a bit closer, whipping in uppercuts and lead hooks, trying to steal it at the death.

It wasn’t enough. All three judges scored it for Noakes, a unanimous decision that puts him right back in the world-title conversation.

On a night when the main event swung from promise to heartbreak, the undercard had already delivered its own stories: a bloodied champion surviving, a heavyweight wrecking ball announcing himself again, a prospect denied his breakout win, and another edging closer to the sport’s summit.