Ice-cool Ryan Aston cheered up British fight fans at the biggest boxing show of the year in Hamburg.

The Dudley middleweight continued a punch perfect start to his professional career on Saturday night with a four-round points win over Bulgarian tough guy Zuhari Muatfchiev, coming just seven days after victory on his paid debut.

Aston’s win was the opening fight of the show – topped by David Haye’s heavyweight unification battle with Wladimir Klitschko -  and the Imtech Arena was slowly filling with fans when the Black Country prospect ducked between the ropes.

The 20-year-old former amateur star then took his place at ringside to watch Klitschko outpoint Haye, adding his opponent’s WBA title to his WBO, IBF and IBO belts.

Haye intends retiring when he turns 31 in October and, with a match against WBC champion Vitali Klitschko looking unlikely, he faces an uncertain future.

But Aston, part of the Haymaker promotional stable, has much to look forward to.

His next fight is already pencilled in for Friday September 23 at the Tower Ballrooms in Edgbaston, when the smooth-boxing southpaw will be looking to build on a polished start to his professional career.

Aston, a former England amateur international, said: “What a show to be a part of. It was such a great experience for me to box on such a big show.

“It’s given me a taste of where I want to be.”

Aston does look destined for a good professional career.

Muatfchiev, a 37-years-old, had won his previous fight and, in a trip to Britain, had extended highly-regarded former ABA champion Liam Cameron the distance.

Aston, so relaxed and loose around the shoulders, handled him with ease by moving smoothly up and down the gears, disguising his punches well and punishing the Bulgarian to body and head.

Ther youngster was close to forcing a stoppage in the third round and said afterwards: “He can definitely take a shot!

“I felt sharp in there and caught him with body shots that were hurting him, but he hung in there.”

At the opening bell, Aston landed a solid right hook and later in the opening session, Muatfchiev appeared to touch down from a body punch.

But he straightened himself quickly and the referee let the fight carry on without issuing a count.

Aston continued to patiently pick his punches and by the end of the second, his jolting uppercuts had left Muatchiev’s face reddened.

Still, the Bulgarian kept chugging forward, trying to take the fight to Aston. But all he did was walk into punches and ‘Tank’ produced his best work late in the final 30 seconds of the third.

Backing up Muatchiev with an uppercut and seeing that his opponent was unsteady on his legs, Aston stepped up a gear and put together a burst of around 20 unanswered punches.

The referee could have stepped in, but let the pasting continue until the bell.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s cousin Josh Aston was a winner in Gibraltar on Saturday – but the Midlands team were overrun by their counterparts in Gibraltar.

Light flyweight Aston, also from Dudley, took a unanimous points decision against Tyronne Buttigieg in the British overseas territory.

But the 18-year-old was one of only two of the Midlands team to win in seven contests in the amateur tournament.

By Matt Bozeat