Tommy Philbin delighted with first pro career stoppage

Tommy Philbin was too strong for Kelvin Young. Pic: TSPL

The 26-year-old MGM fighter, who now boasts a 7-0 record, turned in an assured display to stop his experienced Swindon-based opponent (18-8-2) at the start of the fourth round on Saturday night.

“It feels brilliant, I’m so happy,” Philbin said. “I’d been wanting to win by stoppage for a while now. I know he was a much tougher opponent than what I’ve faced previously so I could have been beaten on Saturday night. I needed to raise my game and I certainly feel as if I did that. I got a six-rounder with a step-up in class so I was delighted to get that.

“I knew he’d been coming to win as he was probably thinking I’d only had six fights, but I hurt him early on and he was on the back foot the whole time. I actually think the fight should have been stopped earlier than what it was. His nose was a mess and every time I hit him with an uppercut I could see that it was hurting him.”

In the main event of the night, Billy Joe Saunders successfully retained his WBO world middleweight title against Russian Artur Akavov despite an unconvincing display in the ring – a view shared by Philbin.

“I didn’t think Billy Joe looked great to be honest,” he said. “The Russian guy looked good and I actually thought Billy Joe had lost the fight and I wasn’t the only one thinking that in the crowd. It was a fairly decent show though as there were a few big names on the bill with Tyson Fury there watching too.”

Philbin, however, revealed he plans to box his first fight of 2017 at super middleweight.

“I’m going to go down to super middleweight even though I’m now ranked tenth in Britain at light heavyweight, which is an achievement in itself to be honest. But I need to get the weight down so I’m hoping to be back out in March again.”

Meanwhile, super lightweight Thomas Dickson returned to winning ways with a points victory over Ibrar Riyaz.