Although Padley was stopped in the ninth round of the WBC lightweight title fight, he took plenty of confidence from the experience.

Just hours before Stevenson walks to the ring at Madison Square Garden to fight Teofimo Lopez in the headline attraction of The Ring 6, Padley (18-1, 6 KOs) earned the biggest win of his own professional career.

The 30-year-old from Armthorpe in Yorkshire scored a decisive second round stoppage of France’s Jaouad Belmehdi (23-3–3, 11 KOs) to become the European junior lightweight champion at the Newcastle Arena.

Padley edged away from the angular Belmehdi, who seemed to start the fight with blood coming from a wound under his left arm.

Padley darted in and out of range and found the mark with short, sharp combinations.

Midway through the second, a short left hook dropped Belmehdi and the Frenchman never recovered. Although he got up, he tottered around on spindly legs and Padley finished matters with a well picked pair of right hands.

In December, Elif Turhan’s devastating knockout of Beatriz Ferreira earned “The Golden Turk” the IBF lightweight title and established her as the most violent, heavy handed fighter in women’s boxing.

Keen to maintain her momentum, Turhan (12-0, 8 KOs) got straight back to work but struggled badly to impose herself on Australia’s Taylah Gentzen (8-1, 3 KOs) in the first defence of her title.

Eventually, Turhan’s aggression earned her a split decision victory.

Ranked at number three by The Ring, Turhan can look crude and basic as she follows her opponents around the ring and Gentzen settled the quicker of the two and landed a couple of right hands in the opener.

Clean punches were few and far between and the fight quickly became a scrappy affair.

Gentzen poked away with her jab and the occasional right hand and made Turham miss time and time again but, by the midway point, there were clear signs that the Turkish fighter’s sheer physicality was beginning to take its toll.

With the end in sight, Turhan finally began to box. Rather than winging in wild, wide shots from the opposite side of the ring, she began to box her way into range and landed a beautifully timed right hand in the eighth.

Gentzen managed to stay safe but her own output dropped badly and her game challenged petered out.

The fight went to the score cards. One judge scored the fight 97-93 for Gentzen but they were overruled by cards of 98-92 and 96-94 in Turhan’s favour.

Heavyweight prospect, Leo Atang (4-0, 4 KOs), scored his fourth consecutive knockout by taking out Belgium’s Amine Boucetta (9-18) in the third round of a scheduled four.

The 19-year-old from York was extended beyond the opening round for the first time but is still at the learning stage of his career and will benefit from every moment he spends in the ring.

Using his footwork and feints to pressure Boucetta, the 2024 World Boxing Under-19 Championships gold medallist controlled the action from the start. He attacked the Belgian with quick two-handed bursts and switched the attack from head to body.

Boucetta offered virtually nothing in return and decided to stay on one knee after absorbing a left to the body just 39 seconds into round number three.