Carl Frampton defeats Scott Quigg in all-British unification meeting to claim WBA and IBF world super-bantamweight titles
Carl Frampton defeated Scott Quigg on points to claim the WBA and IBF world super-bantamweight belts in Manchester.
It was an all-British unification world title bout and the result means a first loss for 27-year-old Quigg on his 34th professional fight.
The first half of the contest did not live up to expectation as Frampton landed more shots, which gave him the edge in the overall fight as two of the judges' scorecards gave it 116-112 to the Northern Irish fighter, the other had it 115-113 to Quigg.
Frampton's unbeaten record is now 22 matches and it was good to see no animosity between the two after the fight, despite all the exchanges in build up.
The heat was turned up between the two this week as a row over the changing rooms ensued - with Carl Frampton's mentor and manager Barry McGuigan telling talkSPORT their team would quit if it was not solved.
But thankfully it did not come to that and it meant the fight would go ahead between Bury-born Quigg - entering as the WBA champion - and Northern Ireland's Frampton - the IBF champion.
Barely any punches were landed in a tense opening round. Quigg was the nervier of the two as Irishman Frampton landed some early jabs in the second, as the former remained defensive in the third and fourth rounds. The bout was crying out for a combination move to liven up the contest.
Quigg's big right hand towards the end of the fourth was the best so far, but he could not use it to gather momentum in this cagey affair.
Maybe it was because they both put their pride and undefeated records on the line, but Quigg livened up at the end of the fifth after allowing Frampton the advantage in the opening exchanges.
Frampton landed a good body shot in the seventh as it started to fire up the already vociferous Manchester crowd, but Quigg edged the eighth before getting his opponent on the ropes in the ninth.
They finally gathered pace in the tenth - the best round so far - going toe-to-toe as time was running out to preserve their undefeated records.
Quigg carried his momentum into the 11th and he landed bigger blows, with Frampton looking on the edge and a quick glance over to his corner showed the Irishman was flagging.
Going into the final round it was still Frampton's to lose and Quigg needed to act fast to get the stoppage but Frampton finished strongly and thousands of his travelling fan base were delighted as his name was announced by Michael Buffer.