Sunday 31 July 2016 01:04, UK
Gamal Yafai was taken the full 12 rounds for the first time in his career, as he made the first successful defence of his Commonwealth super-bantamweight title.
It proved a tough task for Birmingham's Yafai, who was challenged all the way by his Yorkshire opponent Josh Wale in an entertaining scrap on the undercard of home favourite Josh Warrington's fight with Patrick Hyland in Leeds on Saturday.
The 24-year-old started sharply and had Wale cut over the right eye in the first round, although replays showed that it was due to a clash of heads.
'The Beast' controlled the tempo early on and landed several spiteful shots to the body of his experienced foe - a two-time British title challenger - as he recorded a unanimous points victory.
Wale though, was not going anywhere and realised his plans of taking Yafai into deep waters and making it a gruelling 12-round battle.
In the end, it was not enough and Yafai remains unbeaten and will now look ahead to bigger prizes.
"It was a hard fight and a good experience for me in there," Yafai told Sky Sports.
"We knew it might go 12 rounds and I learnt a lot tonight. I wanted to show I could box and go the full distance and I think I did that."
