Arnold Barboza Jnr arrived in Manchester for his crucial junior welterweight fight with Jack Catterall as something of an unknown quantity.

The 33 year-old has accumulated a long unbeaten record but nobody could be quite sure of just how good he was.

Barboza Jnr is clearly a quality fighter but the overriding memory when considering the fight was the way he struggled during his controversial split decision victory over tricky Northern Irish southpaw, Sean McComb, last April.

Catterall, 30-2 (13 KOs), is a clever, tough southpaw and it was widely accepted that whilst Barboza Jnr would cause his fair share of problems, he would need to produce a career best performance to get past the the 31 year-old from Chorley, who was ranked at No.2 by Ring Magazine.

Barboza Jnr did exactly that and leaves England as the WBO interim junior welterweight champion.

As a long, cold fight week passed, the idea of a Barboza Jnr win began to gain more and more momentum amongst people who had spent time around him or seen him at close quarters.

Barboza Jnr - who entered the ring as Ring Magazine’s number nine ranked junior welterweight - held his shape throughout the tense twelve rounds and solved Catterall’s patient, southpaw style quicker and more efficiently than any of his previous opponents.

After twelve engaging, nip and truck rounds most neutral observers at ringside felt that the Californian had done just enough to edge a very close fight but the majority of those also expected Catterall to be given the nod.

As it was, Barboza Jnr, 32-0 (11 KOs), was awarded a fair and deserved split decision victory. Full WBO 140lb champion, Teofimo Lopez, now has 180 days to defend his belt against Barboza Jnr.

Catterall’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, told BBC 5 live Boxing that he had no issues with the result but would have liked to have seen both men try to grab the fight by the scruff of the neck and leave no room for doubt.

“When I got in the ring, Barboza was like, ‘I won that’ I was like, ‘Mate, honestly that’s close. Neither of you really did enough but you might have done enough, you might not. I don’t know,’” Hearn said.

“I would have liked to have seen both fighters take a little bit more initiative in the fight. It’s your chance. The interim world championship, it’s a fight with Teofimo Lopez. Go and grab it.”

Former British and European 140lb champion, Dalton Smith, 17-0 (13 KOs), was an interested observer. Last week, the 28 year-old was installed as the mandatory challenger for the WBC super lightweight title.

On March 1st, Albert Puello will defend the green and gold belt against Spanish challenger, Sandor Martin at the Barclay’s Centre in Brooklyn, New York. The winner will then be allowed to make a voluntary defence of the title before facing Smith.

Smith was one of a minority who believed that his promotional stablemate, Catterall, had done just enough to win.

“I thought it was a very close fight. For me, I had it a draw if not one round to Jack Catterall but i just think the rounds were very hard to score,” Smith told 5 Live Boxing.

“Congratulations to Arnold Barboza. It’s a great achievement but, obviously, we wanted Jack to win. He was in his hometown and it was a big moment for him but that’s boxing at the top. The rounds are going to be close.”