The term ‘crossroads bout’ is regularly bandied about but the light-heavyweight fight between Craig Richards (19-4-1, 12 KOs) and Padraig McCrory (19-2, 9 KOs), seemed certain to send both winner and loser down wildly different paths.

The 10-round contest was the main support bout to the IBF welterweight final eliminator between Lewis Crocker and Paddy Donovan, broadcast on DAZN worldwide from Belfast's SSE Arena.

After a spell at Shane McGuigan’s gym, Richards recently returned to the Matchroom Gym are rekindled his partnership with Tony Sims. Back in 2021, Richards put in a creditable performance when losing a decision to Dmitry Bivol but last June the 34-year-old lost widely to Willy Hutchinson on the Queensberry Vs. Matchroom ‘5 Vs. 5’ card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and knew that a loss to McCrory would have a significant impact on his hopes of returning to world level.

Twelve months ago, McCrory, 36, was stopped in the sixth round of his super-middleweight fight with Puerto Rico’s Edgar Berlanga and the hometown clash with the respected Richards presented him the ideal opportunity to make an instant impact at his new weight.

Former British champion Richards, 174 1/2lbs, was booed into the ring by a partisan McCrory crowd but instantly set about silencing them with a composed opening round of boxing as he made the switch hitting McCrory fall short continually.

McCrory, who weighed the same, worked at a pedestrian pace, landing precious little and providing Richards with little to worry about. The Londoner refused to get carried away and continued to move McCrory around, scoring with the occasional solid jab and clean right hand.

Looking the much more natural light heavyweight, Richards looked extremely comfortable as McCrory telegraphed his attacks. Moments of drama were few and far between as Richards controlled the action from within his comfort zone.

Recognising the lack of threat, Richards began hunting for McCrory in the fifth. He did it calmly and relied on straight sharp shots but upped the tempo. McCrory began to look disinterested but leapt into a right hand as the round drew to an end, Richards answered with a cuffing left hook that definitely had the more significant impact.

Richards was well on top as the seventh wound down and could sense a finish. He sent the sweat spraying from McCrory’s head with a nice right hand and began to look for a finish. A reluctant-looking McCrory managed to get to the end of the round, making it back to his corner needing a dramatic and unlikely turnaround.

He didn’t find it. Instead, a left hook to the solar plexus dropped McCrory to a knee and his corner stepped up to stop the fight as referee Howard Foster gave the count. The official time came at 1:58 of the eighth.

It always looked like Leon Woodstock (16-4, 7 KOs) would ask plenty of questions of Kurt Walker (12-0, 2 KOs) in their ten-round featherweight fight.

Walker eventually emerged with a ten-round majority decision victory (95-95, 96-94, 97-93) but the fight got progressively tougher for the 29-year-old.

A decorated amateur who represented Ireland at the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo, Walker missed the agreed 126lb limit by 8oz and some suspected that the super fit Woodstock would severely test how deep his gas tank is.

Woodstock, 31, may not have had Walker's amateur grounding but has campaigned at a higher level as a professional.

During his time as a junior lightweight, he lost to Zelfa Barrett, Archie Sharp and former IBF super featherweight champion Anthony Cacace, but all three are quality operators who were able to hit Woodstock hard and regularly. He has proven himself to be more than a match for all but the best domestic opposition.

Walker tore a sheet from that same playbook and the 29-year-old from Lisburn in Northern Ireland made a confident, sharp start. He took the centre of the ring and tagged Woodstock, 126lbs, with both hands to head and body. The Leicester man, two years his senior, absorbed the blows well however and began to spend more time on the front foot as the round ended.

He opened the second with a right hand of his own and followed it up with a nice jab as his route to success became clear. When he pressed forward and applied pressure, Woodstock enjoyed success but too often found himself standing at arms length and directly in Walker’s line of fire. Whenever Woodstock's feet stopped, Walker punished him with sharp straight punches and impressive combinations.

Woodstock is tough, fit and impossible to discourage but the fight became harder and harder as the skill gap became apparent. Midway through the fourth, Woodstock landed a nice short uppercut but Walker answered back almost immediately with a heavy body shot and an accurate two-handed combination again forcing Woodstock back.

Walker showed the ability to match Woodstock’s effort and get the better of him inside. Woodstock upped the tempo in the sixth, attempting to take Walker to places he has never been but the Northern Irishman went with him and got the better of the exchanges, a right hook and right uppercut the round's most eye-catching shots.

Woodstock knew what he had to do and continued to work in aggressive bursts but every success was returned with interest by an impressive Walker who - although he had blood coming from his nose - began to find success with his left hook.

As an entertaining but one-sided fight entered the final round, Woodstock charged off his stool and emptied the tank, Walker got on the back foot as the pace finally began to tell but although it was a strong finish, it was too little too late and Walker was rightly awarded the majority decision to stay perfect as a professional.

Tommy McCarthy (21-7, 10 KOs) and Steven Ward (15-3, 5 KOs), are friends and have shared hundreds of rounds in the gym over the years but put personal feelings to one side and agreed to face each other in a make-or-break cruiserweight battle.

Former European champion McCarthy considered his future in the sport after a fourth-round loss to Cheavon Clarke last January but the 34-year-old decided to commit into a final effort.

Ward has been out of the ring since suffering a fifth-round defeat to Albania’s Juergen Uldedaj last July. The 34-year-old ‘Quiet Man’ also elected to continue fighting after the loss and conservatively felt his way into the fight, pawing and feinting his way through the opening stages in an attempt to make the looser McCarthy commit to an attack.

Ward, 199 1/2lbs, began to find his distance in the second. He began to put more weight behind his jab and used it to measure a pair of solid right hands. McCarthy, 199 1/4lbs, struggled to find any rhythm whatsoever and as the bell sounded to end the round he was dropped heavily by a beautiful left hook.

He regathered himself in a quiet third as Ward failed to press home his advantage and clipped Ward with a short right uppercut as the round came to a close.

Although it would be a stretch to say McCarthy got on top in the fourth, he did begin to put together his work more consistently. Ward found it harder to find the man with his jab and McCarthy landed a couple of short rights while starting to catch Ward's attacks on his arms as his sense of timing slowly but surely returned.

As the lowkey bout entered the second half, Ward came out with renewed intensity to his work. His feints were sharper, his jab quicker and a heavy right hand dropped McCarthy again.

This time, McCarthy had no time to recover. He got up but was immediately pinned on the ropes and put under sustained, heavy fire. McCarthy’s trainer, Paddy Gallagher, jumped up onto the ring apron to stop the fight but referee, Hugh Russell Jnr, didn’t see him.

A couple of seconds later, he decided to stop the action anyway and eventually jumped in at 1:17 of the sixth. Ward put in a calmer accomplished performance and will look for another opportunity whilst it may well be the end for McCarthy.