Lancashire prospects Mark Jeffers and Reece MacMillan win on big night in Bolton

Chorley middleweight Mark Jeffers and Morecambe super lightweight Reece MacMillan were both victorious at the Macron Stadium on the undercard of Hughie Fury’s triumph over Sam Sexton that saw him lift the British heavyweight title.

Jeffers improved his unblemished professional record to 7-0 with a first stoppage as he saw off Pjotr Filatov inside two rounds.

MacMillan meanwhile is now 6-1 after winning 40-37 on the card of Preston referee Phil Edwards after an action-packed four rounds against ​​​Innocent Anyanwu.

The pair were made to wait for their time to shine on the Channel 5 bill with Jeffers actually seeing action after the televised main event.

The 20-year-old wasted no time in getting to work though and knocked down Filatov with a left-hand in the first round only for the Estonian to be saved the bell.

There was to be no let up in the second with Jeffers finishing the job with a big right hand from which his opponent couldn’t beat the 10 count.

“I’ve been working on trying to show in fights what I can do in the gym and in six fights before this I hadn’t shown anyone how good I actually am,” said the former Chorley ABC youngster, trained by Michael and Dave Jennings in Coppull.

“We knew I could hit hard but I just wasn’t planting my feet and wasn’t doing what Mick and Dave wanted me to do.

“But I’ve got bigger and stronger and there were massive improvements I thought.”

Preston-trained MacMillan went toe-to-toe with the experienced Anyanwu in a back-and-forth contest, ultimately having his hand raised having won three of the four rounds.

“It was a good fight,” said the 22-year-old, who had John Donaghy running his corner.

“I can’t help but get involved in a war though.

“I left my hands down and admired my work a bit too much rather than landing the shots and getting back out.

“I wasted a few shots too when I shouldn’t have.

“But it was a big stage to be on and it was great to get the win.”

“He was in with a tough guy with 15 knockouts out of 25 wins,” said Donaghy.

“He got the win, I just wanted him to be a little bit tighter. He’s only young, he’s 22 and he’s getting there.”