Paul Butler beats Jonas Sultan to win WBO interim world bantamweight title

Paul Butler (pictured with trainer Joe Gallagher) has now won 34 of 36 professional fights

Britain's Paul Butler became the WBO interim world bantamweight champion with a unanimous points win over Jonas Sultan in Liverpool.

Sultan, 31, was a late replacement after fellow Filipino and title holder John Riel Casimero was unable to fight.

Butler, 33, took the belt with scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 117-111 at the M&S Bank Arena.

"I had 48 hours to get a game plan together," said Butler.

The WBO could decide to upgrade Butler's title to full world championship status, which would make him a two-time world champion after he held the IBF belt in 2014.

"It's unbelievable. What a feeling. I've waited a long time to become a two-time world champion," he said.

Butler was first scheduled to meet Casimero in Dubai in December 2021, but the fight fell through when Casimero failed to make weight.

They were then due to meet on Friday, but Casimero breached British Boxing Board of Control rules by using a sauna to lose weight in close proximity to a fight.

Butler made a bright start against Sultan, producing a great variety of punches and finding the target with combinations as Sultan struggled to land anything substantial.

Sultan started the sixth well, but Butler, utilising fine footwork and solid boxing skills, kept making his opponent lunge in and miss.

Sultan had some success at the end of the eighth and had his best round in the ninth, but could not build on that as Butler regained control to secure a dominant victory.

Promoters Probellum earlier this week denied any link with Daniel Kinahan, the Irish cartel leader who has been hit with worldwide financial sanctions by the US for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering.

Probellum president Richard Schaefer said "at no time was there any financial, managerial or board involvement" between Probellum and MTK Global, the promotion company co-founded by Kinahan.

Schaefer told BBC Sport that any fighter on Probellum's books must cut ties with Kinahan or the company would not promote them.

The card was scheduled to be shown on Eurosport, but the channel chose not to broadcast the fights. They were shown only on the Probellum website.

Maxwell loses but McGrail impresses

On the undercard, Britain's Sam Maxwell suffered the first defeat of his 17-fight career as he was stopped in the ninth round by Mexico's Alejandro Meneses.

With the vacant IBO world super-lightweight title on the line, 33-year-old Maxwell was floored in the fourth and ninth before referee Howard Foster stopped the contest.

Super-bantamweight Peter McGrail, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 2018 and part of Britain's boxing squad for the 2020 Olympics, claimed his fourth win in four professional fights by beating Mexican Uriel Lopez via a fourth-round stoppage.