LONDON, England - Ishmael Davis halted a run of three straight defeats in 12-round fights by edging past die-hard Spurs fan Sam Gilley at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

After an absorbing clash, judge John Latham scored him a 115-114 winner while Howard Foster and Mark Bates both had it 115-113, crowning Davis the new British and Commonwealth junior middleweight champion after a difficult year in the ring.

Having stepped in at late notice to face both Josh Kelly and Serhi Bohacuk, two fights he lost, Davis was gaining a reputation as a man who would fight anyone at any time.

However, when those two defeats were followed by a split decision loss to Caoimhin Agyarko in September, this fight against Gilley suddenly turned into one which carried significant pressure for the Yorkshireman. He got back to winning ways by beating Elliot Eboigbe last month, which meant he was able to challenge for the vacant British super-welterweight title and Gilley’s Commonwealth belt here on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr.'s rematch with Conor Benn.

After struggling to breach Gilley’s long jab in the first round, the switch-hitting Davis began to have some success during the second, landing to the body and head of the Commonwealth champion.

But with Davis pressing to close the distance, Gilley started to find a home for a right-hand bolo, which he sunk into the head and body in the closing stages of the second.

Gilley emerged for the third with a clear remit to dominate the jab exchanges and began to fire it off with more purpose. Davis did well to handle it and looked dangerous with the counter right-hand over the top of it whenever he found himself in orthodox.

The temperature began to rise further in the fourth, a round which Davis appeared to have done enough to win before it exploded into life in the fifth. Gilley, who attended his first Tottenham game aged three, was looking tired but that did not slow down his output. Davis, in his fifth fight of the last 14 months, was getting busier with every passing round.

By the sixth, Gilley’s right eye was badly damaged and as they reached the halfway point it looked as though Davis was in the ascendancy after a testing start. His promoter Eddie Hearn was vocal in his support from ringside but, in the final seconds of the seventh, Gilley landed with a right hand of his own then turned to Hearn to see how he felt about that.

But Hearn would have been delighted by how Davis was boxing and the self-styled Black Panther started to turn the screw in the ninth round as Gilley started to slip towards a crisis. There was not much coming back as Davis poured forward intelligently, switching his attack from head to body.

Gilley, in the stadium he attends every other week for football, refused to buckle and somehow regained a foothold in the fight in an even 10th round, much to the delight of his corner.

He then went on the attack in the 11th, fashioning himself an opening with a pinpoint right uppercut before following it up with a long, sustained barrage. Davis, the father of seven sons, back-peddled with his arms aloft as if to show that he was fine but it was clear he was now the one hanging on.

Those inroads for Gilley set the scene for an enthralling final round and it seemed as though it was Gilley who was having the most success. Then, with seconds left of the fight, Gilley went down but referee Marcus McDonnell adjudged it as a slip even though Davis had landed a right uppercut a split second before his foot gave way.

It was a controversial moment which split opinion but in the end it mattered little with Davis winning on all three cards.

After a week in which the 30-year-old told The Ring this fight was the ‘end of the beginning’, he can now look forward to the next phase of his career as the British and Commonwealth champion.