The British junior lightweight champion showed flashes of brilliance during his 10-round, non-title victory versus Bellotti, which he won by scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92. The 22-year-old contender from Southampton, who called for a showdown with Ireland’s Jono Carroll, will still have learned plenty from his night’s work.

Bellotti entered the fight on the back of two successive defeats, but the 35-year-old veteran from Watford performed well in each outing.

Twelve months ago, he gave The Ring’s No.7-ranked junior lightweight, Ryan Garner, a solid fight before being stopped in the 12th and final round. He looked extremely unlucky to drop a decision to current European champion, Josh Padley, on October 11.

Barney-Smith (17-0, 8 KOs) set the tone within the opening minute when he hurt the resolute Bellotii (20-8, 15 KOs) with a hard southpaw right hook. His feet are almost as fast as his hands and before Bellotti could retaliate, Barney-Smith had edged just out of range and reset.

A former British champion himself, Bellotti has made a career of fighting on the front foot, but he struggled mightily to build any forward momentum. He had to walk through a hail of bullets to get close and wasn’t able to impose himself as much as he might have expected when he did manage to force an exchange.

By the fourth, Bellotti was getting caught cleanly at range as Barney-Smith began to run through his repertoire. Every time the older man paused to set his feet before launching an attack, Barney-Smith would find him with beautifully timed right hooks and straight left hands.

Bellotti kept on plugging away. Barney-Smith began spending more and more time with his back to the ropes and although Bellotti couldn’t land anything significant, the shorter distance did give him some respite from Barney-Smith’s fast, accurate hands.

Given the number of shots he had landed, Barney-Smith might have expected to have caused more damage. He was forced, though, to absorb a pair of right hands himself in the eighth and things did get scruffier as the rounds ticked by.

Steven Cairns, “The Irish Takeover,” remained unbeaten with an impressive fifth-round knockout of Senan Kelly.

An extremely hard puncher, Cairns (15-0, 10 KOs) left Cork to train with Dave Coldwell in South Yorkshire five years ago and his hard work is finally starting to bear fruit.

Kelly (12-2, 2 KOs) has spent most of his career fighting at welterweight, but Cairns, 24, looked perfectly at home at a 138-pound catchweight, calm and composed as he baited Kelly to make a mistake.

Cairns is a sharp, efficient punch-picker but makes sure to always stay busy with his feints and footwork. Kelly seemed reluctant to open himself up to any quick counterpunches.

In the third, a solid body shot finally gave Cairns something to think about, but he quickly recalibrated and scored with an accurate jab and a perfectly timed right hand.

A fourth-round clash of heads left Cairns with a cut over his left eye, but it barely affected him and he dropped Kelly with a picture-perfect left hook at the start of the fifth. Kelly got up but Cairns cut loose. Although Kelly managed to avoid any major shots, the referee stepped in to stop the fight.

The stoppage may have been premature, but it saved Kelly from a much heavier defeat.

Ben Fail got the televised portion of the Queensberry card off and running with a spectacular knockout of Dublin’s Craig O’Brien at junior middleweight.

Totally unfazed by the prospect of fighting on away soil, the tall, 29-year-old southpaw from Northampton took over immediately and fired in a series of left hands to the body as he tried to make O’Brien (15-5, 2 KOs) feel every one of his 36 years.

O’Brien quickly resorted to moving and fighting in flurries, and the tactic worked in the third as Fail kept his hands in his pocket and followed.

The effort was clearly taking its toll on O’Brien and his movement became more frantic and ragged. Fail pressed forward relentlessly and re-established control in the fourth, but it was still a surprise when he brought the fight to a brutal finish with a single well-timed left hand as the fifth round drew to a close.

Fail (12-0, 7 KOs) made things more difficult for himself than they needed to be, but the finish was outstanding.

As Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua prepare to bring one era of heavyweight boxing to an end, the search is on for young heavyweights capable of filling their very sizeable shoes.

Adam Olaniyan (3-0, 3 KOs) seems certain to be a major player in the future.

Olaniyan won seven National titles and a World Youth gold medal as an amateur and was far too good for late substitute Deepak Pathak (1-6, 1 KO).

Earlier this week, Olaniyan told The Ring that he likes the nasty streak he is developing under his trainer, Paul Stevenson, at Everton Red Triangle gym in Liverpool. Although the fight lasted less than two rounds, he hurt Pathak at distance and up close and punished him to head and body.

Early in the second round, a lead right hand eventually broke Pathak’s resistance and he dropped to the canvas with blood pouring from his nose. He got up, but the referee decided he was in no position to continue and stopped the fight.

The 20-year-old from the outskirts of Dublin wants to harness the support of Irish fight fans and he will next appear on the undercard of Katie Taylor’s farewell fight at cavernous Croke Park in September.