Wins for Bellew and Townend

It must have been a strange feeling last night for Tony Bellew to be first up on the show at the First Direct Arena, in Leeds, last night.

The Liverpool fighter, edging towards another tilt at a world title, is used to topping the bill, as he has done in a previous world title fight and in his grudge match against the Welsh fighter Nathan Cleverly.

But last night the Liverpudlian opened the show against the Latvian Arturs Kulikauskis.

Bellew, before the show, has threatened to stop whoever the promoters put in front of him and that is exactly what he did, stopping the Latvian in found five.

However, it remains to be seen whether Bellew can get back to world class or simply threaten to do so without actually troubling the big boys.

Further up the card, the English super-featherweight champion, Andy Townend produced a spirited display to overcome the hurdle of sustaining a cut over his right eye, to knockout Tipton?s Lee glover in the seventh round.