Ritson vs Patera results: Francesco Patera wins European lightweight title

In a competitive and entertaining fight, Francesco Patera upset hometown fighter Lewis Ritson to win his second European lightweight title today in Newcastle.

Patera won on split decision scores of 116-112 across the board, two for Patera and one for Ritson.

Patera (20-3, 7 KO) started a bit slowly in the bout, but picked things up in the middle rounds and was able to take over enough to get the nod. Ritson (17-1, 11 KO) seemed to gas a bit as the fight went on, but made no excuses after the bout, simply apologizing to his home fans for failing to come out with the victory.

Patera won his first European lightweight title back in May 2017, beating Edis Tatli, before losing the belt back to Tatli in December of last year. Tatli recently vacated the title, leaving it up for grabs between Patera and Ritson.

Patera’s next fight will probably be a mandatory defense against Marvin Petit (23-1-1, 11 KO).

On the undercard:

• Robbie Davies Jr (17-1, 12 KO) won the vacant British junior welterweight title by decision on scores of 117-112, 118-110, and 119-109 over Glenn Foot (23-4, 7 KO)
• Light heavyweight prospect Joshua Buatsi improved to 8-0 (6 KO) with a first round wipeout of veteran Tony Averlant (26-11-2, 5 KO)
• David Allen (15-4-2, 12 KO) put away Samir Nebo (10-3-1, 10 KO) in just 65 seconds in their heavyweight fight