Royal Albert Hall Boxing Results: Early Undercard Fights From London

Boxing has returned to London's famed Royal Albert Hall for the first time in thirteen years (the last show was best-known as the night Marco Antonio Barrera ended Prince Naseem Hamed's run), and we'll have continuing live coverage. Here's the first bit of results from the evening, as two televised fights have come and gone.

Our live updates continue here, with Sam Webb vs Matthew Hall just underway.

Terry Holmes PTS-8 Dean Byrne

The opening televised bout was a good one, as unbeaten Holmes stayed unbeaten with a points win over Ireland's game but very limited Byrne. Holmes (6-0, 1 KO) put a pretty good beating on Byrne (15-2, 6 KO) in the middle rounds, including a point where Byrne's corner threw in the towel. The referee threw it back out, because sometimes referees love playing the dramatic hero, which I think is an awful practice. In this case, it led to both corners entering the ring, only for the referee to throw the towel back out. Holmes, celebrating his win, was thus nearly blindsided by Byrne, because with all the confusion of guys running into the ring, the referee left Holmes totally vulnerable. Holmes wound up announced as the winner by a 67-65 score, but obviously that should have been 77-75. Bad Left Hook had it 78-74 for Holmes.

Bradley Saunders TKO-1 Danny Dontchev

Dontchev pulled out at the end of a single one-sided round, and word is he may have perforated his eardrum. It was just a "look at him win a fight" fight for Saunders (2-0, 2 KO).