The pair met in the chief support of the Queensberry Promotions card headlined by the world heavyweight championship rematch between WBO champ Daniel Dubois and once-beaten Fabio Wardley.

With fireworks expected in the main event, the pair served up a hotly contested battle of their own at lightweight. Even so, it seemed Gomez had done more than enough to claim the British and Commonwealth titles after a very fast start.

But 20 months after he was stopped in his challenge for the British title at 130 pounds, the judges combined to ensure that a crestfallen Gomez (23-2-1, 8 KOs) did not claim the titles here, either. Steve Gray had him a 115-114 winner, when both Phil Edwards and Darren Sarginson scored it 114-114, O’Doherty retained his belts.

This was the second defense of his British title and the first of his Commonwealth strap. Gomez fought for the third time at lightweight since that unsuccessful attempt to win the same belts at junior lightweight.

Since stepping up, Gomez has been in explosive form, stopping Jordan Flynn in the third and then Lee McGregor in the sixth.

Despite being less established at the weight, he towered over O’Doherty (12-0-1, 3 KOs), the former gymnast, and spent much of the opening round walking the champion down. He had success, too, finding the target with a right hand and pinning O’Doherty in the corner before unloading with a succession of body shots.

The champion did not look comfortable under pressure and struggled to keep his distance against the marauding Gomez. O’Doherty made a better start to the second, but it was not long before Gomez got straight back onto the front foot, stalking forward once again. With 15 seconds left in the second, the challenger got through with a particularly hard right hand, which O’Doherty seemed to feel, but he made it to the bell safely.

Despite such a testing start, O’Doherty kept his composure and was refusing to wilt and had pockets of his own success in a better third. There were moments in the fourth when O’Doherty looked in danger of simply being overwhelmed by Gomez, though he used excellent angles to get himself out of trouble and fire back with counters.

The fifth round was an ode to Gomez’s right uppercut, as he crashed home the same shot time and time again while O’Doherty opted to try and close the distance and get himself closer to his opponent. Even so, the man from down the road in Essex would not give his title away without a fight.

There was more heavy pressure from Gomez in the eighth, but still O’Doherty stood firm and fired back with shots of his own. Another left and another right crashed home for Gomez Jr midway through the ninth, but O’Doherty never looked like he would go down.

The 10th and 11th were competitive throughout and then, perhaps sensing he needed a knockout, O’Doherty piled on the pressure himself in the 12th. He did enough to win the round and, ultimately, secure a decision that was roundly booed inside the arena.

Heavyweight prospect Adam Olaniyan continued his education with a second-round stoppage of Dan Garber in the bout before Gomez’s win.

But it is a fight that will be best remembered for the actions of referee Amy Pu, who rejected the towel from Garber’s corner at the time of the first knockdown and allowed the fight to continue. Olaniyan (5-0, 5 KOs) had made a reasonably bright start to the fight and, with only a few seconds left of the first round, Olaniyan landed a crunching right hand. The perfectly timed cross was a sign of things to come.

With just 20 seconds gone in the second, the 20-year-old Irishman dropped Garber (14-10, 2 KOs) with an identical shot and the towel came in from the corner despite Garber beating the count. However, after assessing Garber’s condition herself, Pu was having none of it and simply kicked it out of the ring and allowed the fight to continue.

In steamed Olaniyan once again, dropping Garber to his knees for a second time with another right hand. In came the towel once again and this time Pu decided enough was enough, waving off the fight at an official time of 1:15.

“I was made for these big nights and big fights,” Olaniyan said. “This is where I want to be in the future, topping the bills at places like this, fighting for world heavyweight titles.”

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov dropped Sol Dacres en route to a lopsided decision in the card’s first heavyweight action.

The big Uzbek dominated for much of the 10 rounds, but he was seemingly happy to box his way to the final bell instead of putting his foot down in search of the stoppage. The judges’ scores of 99-91 and 99-90 twice told the story of a one-sided clash, yet it was a performance from Jalolov (18-0, 15 KOs) unlikely to strike much fear into the rest of the division.

The 32-year-old southpaw has long been tipped as a man capable of adding a professional world title to the gold medals he won in 2020 and 2024 and he did not put a foot wrong over the course of what was his second fight since signing a contract with Queensberry Promotions.

It looked like he might register the 16th stoppage of his career when he floored Dacres (10-2, 3 KOs) heavily inside the first minute of the fifth. However, he was unable to apply the requisite pressure and the Birmingham man, who appeared to suffer a broken nose, stood firm for the remainder.

Nelson Birchall (13-0, 10 KOs) def. Levi Giles (17-4-1, 4 KOs) TKO7 – junior lightweights

Tony Curtis (15-1, 4 KOs) def. Kerim Agius (6-2-2) TKO4 – junior bantamweights

Leighton Birchall (6-0, 3 KOs) def. Alejandro Morales Chazaro (9-10-2, 5 KOs) PTS6 – featherweights

Manny Safari (1-0, 1 KO) def. Jake Pollard (1-122-1) TKO5 – junior featherweights

Fawas Aborode (3-0,3 KOs) def. Rashid Omar (8-10, 1 KO) TKO4 – lightweights

Zayn Ahmed (4-0, 2 KOs) def. Kasey Bradnum (1-51) TKO1 – junior lightweights

Aaron Noriega (3-0, 3 KOs) def. Leonardo Baez (5-22) TKO4 – junior lightweights

Isaiah Hamilton-Allen (4-0) def. Jensen Irving (6-41-2, 1 KO) PTS4 – middleweights