LONDON, England - George Liddard lived up to his Billericay Bomber moniker as he dropped Aaron Sutton three times during a five round demolition job at the Copper Box.

The 22-year-old has emerged as a noted puncher on the domestic middleweight scene but went the distance in his last outing.

But Liddard was back to his devastating best against the spirited Bristol man Sutton, who moves to 19-2, 3 KOs as a result of this defeat.

Liddard dropped his opponent once in the first, once in the second and then third and finally in the fifth with referee Michael Alexander stopping the fight after 2:20 of the round after the towel had come in.

Liddard (12-0, 7 KOs) is now in line for a shot at Kieron Conway’s British title after punctuating this eliminator with such an eye-catching performance.

The pair had served up an all-action first round but it was Liddard who got the better of it, dropping Sutton inside 40 seconds of the opening bell with a sharp left hook.

The 27-year-old got straight back to his feet and did not seem hurt as he fought back with aplomb throughout the first round, with a number of uppercuts from unorthodox angles finding the target.

But he was down again in the second, this time even more heavily as Liddard crashed home a perfectly timed overhand right, which lay Sutton out on his back with 1:38 of the round gone.

Again he sprung straight up instead of taking any time to recover and it seemed as if the writing was on the wall, with Liddard systematically taking him apart as he retreated to the ropes.

But Sutton regrouped somewhat in the third and made it through the round without being dropped. But his left eye was badly marked and Liddard seemed to be enjoying himself as he gradually moved through the gears.

The third and final knockdown came as the fifth round entered its final minute. Again it was a right hand which landed as the pair traded in centre ring. Sutton was on his knees when his head coach Chris Sanigar threw in the towel to end the fight.

Earlier, Liddard’s stablemate and close friend Jimmy Sains opened up the DAZN broadcast by claiming the vacant Southern Area middleweight title with a one-sided unanimous decision victory over Gideon Onyenani.

Sains dominated throughout all 10 rounds behind a particularly punishing jab but his game opponent ensured he had to keep working for every minute of them.

In the end though, Sains was a worthy winner and Michael Alexander’s 100-90 shutout card was understandable. Marcus McDonnell (100-91) and Lee Every (98-92) were slightly kinder to Onyenani’s industry on the night.

In the pick of the fights on the off-broadcast portion of the show, John Hedges marked his first fight working under Ricky Hatton by claiming the vacant English cruiserweight title.

The 23-year-old southpaw described his performance as ‘rubbish’ but still did enough to win clearly on all three cards. Michael Alexander scored it 99-92, Marcus McDonnell 98-92 and Kieran McCann 97-93.

Before that, Shannon Ryan survived a scare as she was dropped in the third round by Fara El Bousairi but still did enough to win 77-74 on referee Kieran McCann’s card.

Earlier, two of Matchroom’s prospects both ended their six-rounders inside the distance. Leli Buttigieg moved to 9-0 (3) thanks to a third-round TKO of Serbian Novak Radulovic, who was dropped in the second and then stopped after 45 seconds of the next round.

Welsh talent Taylor Bevan went one better against Juan Cruz Cacheiro, stopping the Argentinean after 1:33 of the second.