Matt Chudley recaps this past weekend's British action.

Rendall Munroe won a unanimous decision over Italian Simone Maludrottu over 12 hard rounds this past Friday night at the Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre in Nottingham.

Using his renowned size and strength, Leciester's boxing binman smothered and outworked the smaller but technically more gifted Italian in a close and exciting fight.  With the win, Munroe not only defended his European super-bantamweight title, but earned a WBC world title shot.

Maludrottu started the brighter, winning the opening couple of rounds by firing out short accurate punches from a tight guard, while Munroe struggled to find his timing and establish his preferred distance.

But starting in the third round, Munroe managed to close the gap successfully and make it an inside fight.  He still wasn't having much luck offensively, as most of his arm punches lacked conviction and were still being blocked, but at least he was now fighting his type of battle.  The eye catching work was still coming from Maludrottu, but Munroe was becoming more settled with the Italian now backed onto the ropes and the fighters leaning on each other in close.

The Sardinian did manage to take the play away from Munroe again at the end of the fifth, catching the younger fighter with uppercuts and right hooks during a momentary loss of focus, and opening up a small cut on the forehead of the local fighter.

Munroe came back out undeterred the following round and began to take over the fight with his tireless work-rate, unleashing quick fire combinations to the body and uppercuts between the guard, as he continuously pressed the older fighter up against the ropes.

Munroe continued to set a relentless pace through the second half of the fight.  Though physically man-handled, the visiting fighter remained in the contest, occasionally catching Munroe with right hands.

Despite having to deal with the constant pressure, Maludrottu came up with a strong final round; catching the ragged Munroe coming in numerous times to create plenty of tension and suspense before the decision was announced.

The scores were surprisingly wide, as Munroe received the nod from the judges by totals of 115-113 and 116-112 (twice) to retain his European title for a fifth time. Now the WBC mandatory, Munroe's promoter Frank Maloney stated that he will wait for the title fight to get pushed to purse bids to try and ensure home-field advantage for his charge against the classy Japanese southpaw Toshiaki Nishioka.

On the under-card...

John Watson (11-0), the mandatory challenger for the British lightweight title, kept sharp with a clear cut six round decision win over the always awkward Youssef Al Hamidi (6-22-1), who has given the likes of John Murray a tough night's work and taken the 0s of 4 other young prospects.

A stable-mate of Munroe, Welterweight prospect Dale Miles moved to 7-0 with a second round stoppage of 3-7 Latvian Janis Chernouskis, while Scott Woolford (10-4) benefited from a cuts stoppage of Scott Hayward (19-5) after being on the receiving end for 6 rounds of a scheduled 8.

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SBN coverage of Rendall Munroe v. Simone Maludrottu (Sky Sports)