Fury fracas mars Mutley and Gavin

The West Midlands super-fight ended in a wide points loss for Young Mutley against Frankie Gavin – but the bout was marred by a ringside row involving Tyson Fury.

As Mutley and Gavin were in mid-contest, English heavyweight champion Fury suddenly appeared, bare-chested, hurling insults and gestures at British title holder Dereck Chisora, seated ringside.

A melee ensued which was eventually diffused by security, with Fury thrown out of London's 02 Arena for his antics.

It was another twist in what was a memorable night of Sky Box Office boxing on Saturday night, which saw Nathan Cleverly retain his newly-awarded WBO world title after a whirlwind week for the Welshman.

And, in the main event, George Groves finally shut James DeGale up by handing the Olympic gold medallist his first professional defeat, unifying the British and Commonwealth titles in the process.

The super middleweight rivals cannot stand the sight of each other, stemming all the way back to when the two fought in the amateurs.

Groves won then and repeated the trick on Saturday night by the narrowest of margins – winning a majority points decision by a round on two of the three judges scorecards.

It really could have gone either way after a compelling see-saw 12 round contest, which left both fighters bloodied after cuts.

The first title fight of the night was an all-West Midlands affair as West Bromwich's Mutley took on Birmingham's Gavin, with the vacant WBO Inter-Continental belt up-for-grabs.

It pitted the Black Country's former British welterweight champion against Britain's only world amateur title winner, the region's biggest fight since Matthew Macklin beat Wayne Elcock in 2009.

The British middleweight title changed hands between the Birmingham duo that night and another Second City fighter won out this time, Gavin adding the belt to his Irish light welterweight crown.

But Mutley, who turned 35 last Tuesday, became only the second man to go the distance with 'Funtime' Frankie, as the talented prospect went 12 rounds for the first time in his pro career.

Starting slowly has been a trait in the storied 12-year career of Mutley – real name Lee Woodley – and it came back to haunt him again on Saturday night.

Three times Gavin tagged him in the first round, first with two crunching body shots before a right hook also hit the target.

Another two right hooks in the second round saw Mutley's eyes start to glaze and forced referee Richie Davies into his corner at the end of the session, to establish whether he could continue.

But the last thing to go is a fighter's punch and Gavin was hit harder in the third than he, perhaps, has ever been with a thunderous right from Mutley, that sent his opponent skidding across the ring.

That was when the Black Country fighter should have stepped up the pressure but Mutley sat back, aside of a two-punch combo in the fourth, and let Gavin off the hook.

But the later rounds were still keenly contested and they didn't want to stop fighting at all at the end of the sixth round, referee Davies forced to step in and usher the boxers back to their corners.

Mutley looked to have taken a share of the seventh as both went to the body, looking to put punches together and it was Gavin who took the more shots.

The eighth round wasn't just memorable for the appearance of Fury, blood was also spilled in the ring, from the right eyebrow of Mutley.

But the crowds gaze was diverted away from the action as Fury was given his marching orders and turfed out of arena. As he went, the fight's intensity seemed to go with him.

It went the distance and to the scorecards, with Mutley well behind on all three counts. Two judges had him losing 10 of the 12 rounds, while the other had him eight sessions behind.

There was also little to cheer about for West Browmich's Marcus Portman, who was blown away by Swindon's Jamie Cox in three rounds as both fighters made their respective comebacks.

Portman returned to the ring after a 19-month break, while Cox has been out of the ring for a year and was stepping up to light middleweight from welter.

But Portman couldn't get going in an impressive display from the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, who aggressively took the fight to his opponent.

Cox was clinical in his work but took shots himself, most notably a right hand and a stiff jab that shook his head back in the second round.

But the fight turned when Portman throw a punch and eventually ended up getting caught to the ropes, taking two to the body as he covered up.

Referee John Keane thought that was enough and decided to stop the fight, a strange call considering Portman had been allowed to carry on under arguably more pressure early on.

It was a bad night all round for the West Bromwich fighters as Wayne Downing was again outpointed by George Michael Carman, in an identical result for their first fight last December.

Downing lost every round then and did again this time, but was under no real pressure as non-puncher Carman didn't have the power to force the issue.

Carman appeared more interested in showboating than doing than doing any real damage and, in a fiercely-contested welterweight division, won't get far with that attitude.

At the other end of the scale, Cleverly is the undisputed WBO world light heavyweight champion today after overcoming his third opponent of the week.

Preparations for the 24-year-old had disintegrated into farce after title holder Juergen Braehmer pulled out on Tuesday and was stripped, while Tony Bellew failed a check weigh-in on Thursday.

That left Cleverly with Polish power Aleksy Kuziemski, who was waved off by the referee on a cut after four rounds.

The show also marked the winning returns of Paul Smith and Nicky Cook, both taking impressive stoppage victories.

Former British super middleweight champion Smith left Jozsef Matolcsi flat on his face in the first round, while ex-WBO featherweight title holder Cook stopped Youssef Al Hamidi in six.

There was also wins inside the distance for Billy Joe Saunders, Gary O'Sullivan and Lewis Rees, who stopped Kevin Hammond, Ryan Clark and Birmingham's Sid Razak respectively.

Stephen Simmonds and Francis Luke Robinson, son of former WBO world featherweight champion Steve Robinson, rounded off the card with points victories.

By Craig Birch