Sport

Saunders knocks out Blandamura to take European middleweight title

WBO International champion happy to contemplate fight with Chris Eubank Jr

Tyson Fury: rescheduled date for heavyweight clash with Dereck Chisora may be announced next week. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/PA Wire
Sun Jul 27 2014 - 18:00

Billy Joe Saunders claimed the vacant European middleweight title with a thunderous finish to beat Italian Emanuele Blandamura in Manchester.

Saunders, 24, struggled to dominate a previously unbeaten opponent but produced a superb right hook in the eighth round.

Sprawling

The overhand shot sent Blandamura, 34, sprawling against the ropes.

Saunders managed to get several more blows away against the dazed Italian before the referee ended the contest.

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Saunders, who also holds the WBO International middleweight crown, topped the bill at the Manchester Arena after the late cancellation of Tyson Fury's heavyweight fight with Belarusian Alexander Ustinov.

Tyson Fury withdrew from Saturday's heavyweight fight with Alexander Ustinov after his uncle and first trainer was taken seriously ill.

Saunders, from a Romany Gypsy community in Hertfordshire, was happy to contemplate a fight against Chris Eubank Jr, who extended his unbeaten record to 17-0 on the undercard with a brutal first-round stoppage of Croatian Ivan Jukic.