BOLTON’S Jacks in the boxing ring both tasted hometown success on Saturday night, with victories at the Whites Hotel.

Jack Cullen stopped tough Czech Tomas Bezvoda in the third of their 10-round headline bout while Jack Flatley was taken the distance by experienced Bulgarian Angel Emilov but was a 60-55 winner when the judges’ scores came in.

The win moved Flatley to 15th in the UK light-middleweight rankings, having recently moved into the weight division, and his record now stands at 12 wins and a draw since turning professional.

Cullen has risen to 14th in the middleweight standings after his 14th victory, the first time Bezvoda had been stopped in his career, and though it was the year in which he suffered his only defeat –in mitigating circumstances – ‘Little Lever’s Meat Cleaver’ will look back on 2018 as a great success and is looking to fight for a Commonwealth title next year.

“It was a good fight, I felt good,” he said. “Tommy [Battel, trainer] said ‘just box, just box’ and it’s the first time I made the weight easily, that’s down to the training, the food, and the camp’s been mint, if you train and work hard it pays off.

“It’s been a good year, I wouldn’t mind another fight before Christmas, to be honest.

“I’ll fight anyone, anywhere but I’m the middleweight no one wants to fight.”

Meanwhile, Flatley had mixed feelings about his win, having been unable to inflict what would only have been Emilov’s third stoppage defeat in 32 bouts.

And the ‘Quiet Storm’ is looking to stir up the light-middleweight scene in his own bid for a belt.

“I felt good, I felt strong,” he said. “It was a good performance but I wanted a stoppage.

“He’s in good shape though, he’s not been stopped many times and he’s got a few knockouts of his own.

“He’s a tough guy, I was hitting him with some good, solid shots and he was just standing there and taking them.

“I put it on him at times and I boxed at times too, I can do both, I got to the fifth round and I thought ‘I’ve got him here’ and I was hitting him with body shots but he just didn’t go down. But I’ve got a few rounds in.

“I’ve been pretty busy this year. I didn’t have my first fight of the year until May and I’ve got four in since that time, I’ve had two weeks off all year.

“I’ve had 14 fights as a professional now and next year I don’t want to be doing anything other than fighting for a title.

“I really want to test myself and I’ll fight anyone at light-middleweight.

“I’ll have a week off now and I can’t fight for 28 days because of a cut lip so I think a fight in late February or early March would be ideal.”