Martin Bakole earns unanimous points verdict over Sergey Kuzmin

The Airdrie-based boxer was happy to trade blows with his Russian rival throughout the 10 rounds, but landed the better punches in front of a reduced capacity of 1,000 spectators at Wembley’s SSE Arena.

Congolese Bakole, who is trained out of Scotland by Billy Nelson, showed the strength in his chin by walking through some of the efforts which landed from Kuzmin, who weighed in 18 stone six pounds on Friday.

In a respectful but fierce bout, it was the 17 stone 13 pounds adopted Scot who went home as the new international heavyweight champion after a unanimous decision from the judges.

Bakole helped Joshua in preparation for his world title fight with Pulev by being one of the Briton’s sparring partners and with this 16th victory under his belt, remains on course for more lucrative contests in the future.