MANCHESTER, ENGLAND -- Tonight was a celebration of Derek Chisora's career. Win or lose - plenty of both over an 18-year career - many travelled across the country to witness supposedly his final appearance on British shores, showing their appreciation for a national treasure.

The 41-year-old fan favourite (36-13, 23 KOs) wept on arrival at the Co-Op Live Arena, knowing what lay before him and after another exhausting 12-round contest, badly cut over both eyes, he scored knockdowns in rounds nine and twelve en route to a triumphant (117-109, 114-112, 116-110) unanimous decision win over Otto Wallin (27-3, 15 KOs) during their IBF heavyweight title eliminator.

The card was streamed on TNT Sports in the UK and DAZN on US/ROI territories.

Bobbing and weaving forward from the opening bell, trying to pin the Swede against the ropes as many, including former foes Dillian Whyte and Joe Joyce, watched a few feet away ringside.

Five-punch combination, hold, separate. Ducking low as he often did, next came a four-punch flurry with Wallin regularly backed up and needing time to acclimatise to a gruelling pace.

The pair exchanged power shots early in the second, Chisora enjoying more success and Wallin's high guard unable to thwart the short-range clubbing blows being thrown.

After a ticking off by referee John Latham for rabbit punching in the opening minute of round three, Chisora responded as you'd expect: connecting on a pair of big right hands as Wallin exhaled deeply upon hearing the bell, having endured a punishing sequence he wouldn't want much more of.

Wallin's pit-pat jabs and work on the back foot was well-intentioned, but not active nor powerful enough to keep Chisora at long-range. Having lost his footing on more than one occasion, Wallin pounced in a patchy fourth stanza by leaning on Chisora, looking to deplete the favourite's engine.

Chisora's hellacious hooks were back in the fifth, though Wallin weathered the storm well enough and early in the sixth, Latham paused the action and got a doctor's assessment as Chisora was blinking badly from his right eye, cut dangerously below it.

Passed fit to continue as the crowd noise swelled again showing their approval, Wallin had a shiny target to pierce and whenever up close, cuffing shots clean on the eye made the 41-year-old think twice about whether he wanted to engage at that range.

A four-punch combination and looping left hook were among Chisora's best punches in the seventh, Wallin countering him well by this stage but perhaps a little too comfortable for his own good. Right on cue though, Chisora unleashed another inspired flurry with Wallin backed up in his own corner, blood splattering onto my laptop entering the business end of a gritty chess match between heavyweights.

Chisora landed a big left hook to start the eighth and yet more exhausting combinations came shortly afterwards as Wallin fired back just enough to keep the referee away, before the fan favourite was belatedly warned for having his shots too low downstairs.

Judging by his weary look in the final seconds of that big round, had Derek expended all of his energy? Well, if you dared questioned that, he swiftly silenced those doubts inside the first minute of the ninth with a big overhand right to stagger, then drop Wallin. Yet now, he was clearly boxing with an eye on the clock.

Retreating into the Swede's corner in the final half-minute and looking distracted at the start of the tenth, one ringside media member queried whether this was the final round. An IBF title eliminator, he was reminded, there were still two more rounds left - ample time for a drastic momentum shift.

Chisora's stab jabs to the body worked well, Wallin's high guard protecting him from absorbing a howitzer before Chisora played possum in the visitor's corner, clearly buzzed and needing to stay off the ropes, rather than invite the fight onto them.

Wallin looked to box-and-move but Chisora's measured pressure made that tactic was essentially futile whenever the two-time world title challenger deemed it so.

Into the final round they went, Chisora's eyes closing as his left was going too, yet that didn't deter him from throwing with bad intentions and Wallin needed more than to engage in an exchange of jabs. Instead, he had to climb off the canvas again in the final seconds but heard the final bell after another Chisora haymaker.

Afterwards, Chisora had a series of notable faces from the British music scene accompanying him in the ring for a pre-planned 'blockbuster' callout - unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, longtime friend Anthony Joshua and reigning IBF titleholder Dubois, before praising the work of his first coach John Oliver.

One-time British middleweight champion Nathan Heaney (18-1-2, 6 KOs) began well but the raucous Stoke-centric atmosphere was stunned into silence as French national titleholder Sofiane Khati (18-5, 7 KOs) boxed astutely en route to a seventh-round finish, plunging the 35-year-old's career into doubt.

Heaney had to change one of his gloves in the ring before their contest began, foreshadowing a disruptive night's work during the evening's co-feature.

Rebounding after the first defeat of his pro career last time out, Heaney soaked up the reception from hundreds of travelling fans but despite an encouraging start packed with vicious right hands and intent, found himself up against it as Khati grew bolder.

His head trainer Steve Woodvine told him between rounds: "He's wild, don't give him any gaps, you're winning behind the jab - don't make it complicated," before the fourth, though Khati had found a home for his right hand and Heaney's face was a crimson red by this stage above the left eye and his nose too.

Into the fifth they went, the Frenchman conceivably ahead and the tide had turned. Two big left hooks rocked Heaney, the ropes in the right place to cushion him, as the Frenchman's corner hit the canvas in encouragement.

Woodvine read Heaney the riot act before round six, berating him for leaving his defences open by lowering his hands and while the 35-year-old agreed with the instructions, questions over his durability persisted as Khati pressed with body work.

Heaney was dropped heavy by a flurry of punches at the start of the seventh, referee Bob Williams gave the Hitman ample time to recover as his gumshield lay on the canvas and needed to be refreshed, though the barrage merely continued after brief respite. Soon enough, it was all over.

Middleweight: Sofiane Khati TKO7 (1:08) Nathan Heaney

Junior-welterweight: Jack Rafferty TKO7 (1:37) Reece MacMillan

Light-heavyweight: Zach Parker UD10 (98-92, 98-93, 97-94) Mickael Diallo

Featherweight: Zak Miller MD12 (114-114, 115-114, 115-113) Masood Abdulah to win British, Commonwealth titles

Heavyweight: Lewis Williams UD4 (40-36) Cristian Uwaka

Middleweight: Walter Fury UD4 (40-37) Joe Hardy

Middleweight: Joe Cooper UD4 (40-36) Artjom Spatar

Super-featherweight: Jermaine Dhliwayo UD4 (40-36) Mark Butler