By dispatching John Hedges (12-1, 3 KOs) inside six rounds on Saturday night, Pat Brown (7-0, 7 KOs) cemented his status as one of British boxing’s brightest hopes and positioned himself to be the city’s fighting figurehead for years to come.

“Like I said, I can’t go bulldozing him. People think I can’t box. Obviously with the opposition I’ve been it with I’ve not had to,” Brown said after winning the vacant British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles in a main event DAZN streamed from Co-op Live Arena. “With a style like that, you’ve got to work them out. I’ve had a lot of amateur fights. I’ve been in with them sort of styles. I know how to get around the puzzle. With John, you’re not gonna get him out of there straight away because he’ll just make you miss and make you look silly. That’s why it was a patient performance tonight.”

Brown dropped Hedges twice in the sixth round, both times with body shots. Referee Reece Carter counted Hedges out at 2:36 of the sixth.

This week marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of Manchester’s ultimate fan favorite, Ricky Hatton.

As an amateur, the two-weight world champion trained at the same Sale West amateur gym that Brown started fighting out of as a 7-year-old and “The Hitman” was a close friend of the Brown family.

If Hatton would’ve approved of the way Brown, 26, broke down the previously undefeated Hedges, he would have been delighted with the body attack that the 2024 Olympian employed to finish the fight.

Hedges – who won the English title while training under Hatton – doesn’t carry Brown’s firepower. The 6-foot-6 southpaw has developed an extremely effective style, though, that solid domestic operators like Nathan Quarless and Ellis Zorro have found impossible to solve.

The 24-year-old Hedges did enter the fight with a couple of significant questions hanging over his head.

Would he hit hard enough to capitalize on the openings Brown presents? And would he be robust enough to stand up to the inevitable storm heading his way?

Unfazed by the partisan crowd, Hedges settled quickly, stepped out of trouble and found the mark with a flicking jab and counter left. Rather than launching himself recklessly at the taller man, Brown bided his time and didn’t put his weight into a significant shot until he landed a looping right early in the second round.

Rubbing his head under Hedges’ chin and pushing off with his forearm, Brown began to make the fight much more physical and started to impose himself in clinches.

Brown got the better of an exchange of short right hands midway through the third, but Hedges handled the shot well and calmly got back to his boxing.

Brown continued to stalk forward, but he found it difficult to string his punches together or pin the elusive Hedges down until the fifth, when he began to get his right hand working. He cleverly shifted it to head and body, and one well-timed right uppercut sent Hedges’ head rocking back.

Just when Hedges thought he knew what to expect, Brown smartly switched his attack downstairs and a left dropped Hedges to his knees in the sixth. Although he got to his feet, he was quickly dropped again by a right hand to the mid-section and saw out the count on his hands and knees.

On the biggest night of his life, Brown was calm, composed and looks set to bring big nights to Manchester for years to come.

“I just want to put on really good nights,” Brown said. “I’m always nervous for fights because I care about it so much. I don’t want to let my people down. I’ll get in there with anyone and as long as I’m giving value for money, that’s all I care about.”

As Brown’s small army of fans began to take their seats ahead of his fight with Hedges, Shabaz Masoud (16-0, 4 KOs) rounded out the undercard with a dull 10-round, unanimous-decision victory over Argentina’s Ckari Cani Mansilla (19-5, 13 KOs).

All three judges scored the fight 100-90.

Returning as a featherweight after a nine-month layoff, it was immediately obvious that the former European 122-pound champion was far too sharp for Mansilla. He continually punished Mansilla with an accurate southpaw left to head and body.

Despite being fully in control, Masoud was content to pick and poke at the limited Mansilla, rather than grabbing the fight by the scruff of the neck and searching for an eye-catching finish.

It was effective, but not particularly exciting, and one round began to look much like the other. Masoud did up the tempo slightly as the final bell drew near, yet Mansilla never looked in serious trouble.

Mark Jeffers (21-2, 7 KOs) finally found his form and outboxed Kieron Conway (23-5-1, 7 KOs) over 10 rounds to put himself in line for a shot at the British super middleweight title. The judges’ scores were 97-93, 97-93, 96-94.

The 28-year-old Chorley native seemed set for a long career at title level, but he has faltered before in big spots, losing to Shawn Hemphill and then Willy Hutchinson in an ill-advised step up to light heavyweight.

Looking strong in his first fight at 168 pounds, Conway made a composed start against an experienced, established fighter. He felt what Conway had and used feints and some clever footwork to make Conway’s straight punches fall short before retaliating with accurate shots of his own.

Although he looked like the bigger man, Jeffers’ natural strength seemed to be telling on Conway. With his usual A-B-C style of boxing returning few rewards, Conway started to run out of ideas.

He tried to up the tempo in the eighth and ninth rounds, but his aggression got him into trouble, as Jeffers found the mark with a couple of clean right hands.

Rather than seeing out the final round, Jeffers put the seal on an impressive performance, outpunching and outworking Conway to secure the win.

Cory O’Regan made the most of a late, unexpected opportunity by clearly outpointing Joe Howarth over 10 rounds.

O’Regan won by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92. The win earned the talented southpaw the English lightweight title in the opening fight of the live broadcast on DAZN.

This time last week, O’Regan (16-1, 3 KOs) was finalizing preparations for a fight with the all-action Liam Dillon. He jumped at the chance to step in when Howarth’s original opponent, Josh Holmes, was forced out through injury.

As expected, Howarth (15-3, 4 KOs) immediately took the center of the ring as the clever O’Regan edged away looking for his jab and straight left. It took Howarth a round or two to set his sights, but he closed the distance a couple of inches in the third and forced O’Regan to work harder.

O’Regan landed his share of crisp counters – including a sharp right hook in the fifth. But as his feet slowed, it began to look more like a Joe Howarth fight.

Regan found his rhythm again and took the seventh with some crisp counter punching, The round seemed to take something out of Howarth, and he spent the remainder of the fight walking into clean counters, as a revitalized O’Regan found his groove.

Alfie Middlemiss (7-0, 1 KO) def. Christopher Mondongo (10-4, 3 KOs) by TKO-4 – featherweights

Tom Rafferty (18-0, 8 KOs) def. Liam Walsh (9-2-2, 4 KOs) by TKO-2 – middleweights

Jack Power (9-0, 2 KOs) def. Victor Ionascu (14-11, 10 KOs) on PTS-8 – middleweights

Garan Croft (7-0, 3 KOs) def. Mohammed Graich (12-7-1, 6 KOs) by TKO-1 – junior middleweights

Emily Whitworth (5-0) def. Beata Dudek (7-10, 4 KOs) on PTS-6 – bantamweights