Manchester’s Barrett knocked Gwynne to the canvas twice in the fifth before Gwynne’s trainer, Gary Lockett, threw in the towel. Referee Bob Williams stopped the action at 2:33 of the fifth on the Viddal Riley-Seydi Coupe undercard.

A former European junior lightweight champion, Barrett (36-3, 19 KOs) was cast into the wilderness after losing to Jazza Dickens in February 2025. He spent the best part of two years plugging away in the shadows until MF Pro took a chance and signed him to a promotional deal.

Over the years, a number of managers have made the mistake of assuming Gwynne (19-5-2, 5 KOs), a former British and European lightweight champion, was much closer to the end of his career than he actually was.

The 36-year-old Welshman got right down to work and walked forward in his usual relentless manner. Barrett circled left and right, shooting out his jab and pausing to shoot out rapid-fire combinations to head and body.

Gwynne isn’t the type to be discouraged and he continued to press on. Forced onto the back foot as the much taller Gwynne bore down on him, Barrett began to grow in confidence.

Rather than moving away as he has been guilty of in the past, Barrett held his feet for a split second longer.

In the fourth, Barrett landed a beautiful right uppercut. Gwynne’s legs momentarily gave way, but he barely stopped throwing punches. Barrett continued to look for big shots and found the target time and time again.

Early in the fifth, Barrett landed a picture-perfect right uppercut. Pain flashed across Gwynne’s face and he sank to the canvas.

As brave as ever, Gwynne got up, but Barrett was determined to make a statement and continued to throw heavy shots. Eventually, another right uppercut sent Gwynne down again and Lockett threw in the towel.

Barrett spent years draining himself to make junior lightweight. But at 33 years old and with former Ring “Trainer of the Year,” Joe Gallagher, in his corner, he looked like a totally different fighter at 135 pounds.

Ben Marksby took the Commonwealth junior welterweight title from Yaser Al Ghena after an excellent 12-round battle.

Marksby won a unanimous decision. The scores were 114-113, 116-111 and 117-110.

Al Gehna (16-1, 3 KOs) is a strong fighter who walks forward behind a high guard. He immediately began to press the crisp, precise Marksby (15-0, 3 KOs), who was by far the more active fighter of the two in the early stages.

The fight swung one way and the other. Al Ghena’s single, stiff punches seemed the heavier, but Marksby put his punches together well to head and body and he managed to spend some time on the front foot in the fifth as Al Ghena’s intensity dropped.

Al Ghena tried to seize the initiative back in the sixth, but he walked directly into a well-timed right hand and found himself on the canvas. Unhurt, the Syrian-born Londoner gathered himself and jumped right back into the action. He finished the round strongly as the constant movement and work rate began to tell on Marksby.

Marksby answered the bell for the eighth and immediately stung Al Ghena with a hard right hand. He landed both hands in an accurate follow-up and then switched back to his clever boxing when he realized that Al Ghena had recovered.

Al Ghena responded well. He found his uppercut and began to work Marksby’s body in the ninth, but the 27-year-old from Darlington found a second wind and got back into his groove. No matter how hard Al Ghena tried, Marksby always managed to find a little extra time and space.

Dan Toward (9-1-1, 6 KOs) and Jak Corrie (9-1-1, 6 KOs) boxed to a hard-fought 10-round draw May 29. Rather than going their separate ways, the junior middleweights decided to get back in the ring and settle matters.

This time around, Toward controlled the action from start to finish, but he had to settle for a split-decision victory.

After 10 drama-free rounds, one of the judges somehow scored the fight 96-94 in favor of a hesitant Corrie. Thankfully, the other judges got things right and both returned 98-92 cards in Toward’s favor.

Toward was a star amateur, but rather than pressuring him or trying to make an early impression, Corrie decided to stay on the outside and pick his punches. The tactic gave Toward time to settle in behind his southpaw jab. Once he had established a grip of the fight, he never let it go.

Corrie picked the odd counter punch, but gave up any advantages he did have by staying at range and throwing in ones and twos rather than threes and fours. Although not many clean punches were landing, Toward was fully in control and he clipped Corrie with a nice right hook early in the fifth.

Determined to get past Corrie and move on with his career, Toward refused to take any risks and continued working to his pre-fight plan. It wasn’t exciting, but it was effective and despite an effort from Corrie in the final round, Toward safely made it to the final bell.

In the opening fight of the television broadcast, Tom Welland (12-1, 6 KO) stopped Jack Dillingham (7-1-1, 2 KOs) in the seventh round of a barnstorming English featherweight title fight.

The taller Dillingham tried to take the fight to Welland, but he was constantly hit by hard, accurate left hooks and right hands by the talented Welland. Dillingham decided to fight fire with fire and upped the tempo.

By the fifth round he seemed to have grown accustomed to Welland’s power and was forced his highly rated, 22-year-old opponent to fight for every success. Just as it looked like Dillingham was building a head of steam, Welland hurt him with a solid right over the top at the end of the sixth round.

Rather than headhunting, Welland smartly switched his attack downstairs in the seventh and a hard accurate left hook to the body dropped Dillingham for the count.

Frankie Stringer (11-0, 1 KO) def. Kurt Jackson (7-4-1) PTS8 – lightweights

Kieran Molloy (16-0, 9 KOs) def. Steve Suppan (17-6-1, 8 KOs) TKO2 – welterweights

JP O’Meara (9-0, 1 KO) def. Jorge Balleza (4-28, 1 KO) PTS6 – junior lightweights

Arjon Bassi (4-0, 1 KO) def. Fernando Valdez (1-35-1) PTS4 – lightweights

Derrick Osadalor (2-1, 2 KO) def. Tomas Podlas (5-16-1, 5 KOs) TKO2 – heavyweights