BOURNEMOUTH, England — Aloys Junior spent all week loudly declaring that he would dispose of Ellis Zorro in brutal fashion and serve a vicious reminder as to why he is seen as one of the cruiserweight division’s most exciting prospects.

Junior (11-1, 9 KOs) won, but the 22-year-old can consider himself lucky to have escaped with a unanimous decision after 10 lacklustre rounds in the co-feature preceding Ryan Garner's career-best 12th-round stoppage win over Reece Bellotti on DAZN.

The colourful, confident Junior injected some spite into the fight week proceedings, but if that was an attempt to make Zorro (18-3, 7 KOs) fight recklessly it didn’t work. Aware that his most likely route to victory would be a long one, the former Ring title challenger calmly circled to his left, pawing out his jab.

Junior also boxed patiently. He tried to cut the ring down and fired in the odd heavy hook to the body, but found it hard to get his feet close enough to unload his trademark combinations.

It was painfully slow stuff.

Junior’s reputation has soared in recent months, but he is still only 11 fights into his career and he was making the mistake of looking for powerful single shots rather than putting his punches together, an approach which played directly into the cagey Zorro’s hands.

Junior began the fifth with a flurry but absorbed a hard right hand in return and the paced again slowed. Zorro punctuated the round with another clean right hand as the bell rang.

One round began to look much like the other as the slow pace suited Zorro. Junior looked to land his big right hand but had become extremely predictable. Growing in confidence, Zorro cleverly slid out of range and forced him to continually reset his feet.

By Round 8, it felt like the fight was in the balance but, still, Junior boxed with a lack of urgency. Zorro continued to move around the ring, feinting and popping home his jab. Although a right uppercut came close to landing, Junior struggled badly to land with any consistency.

With the fight in the balance, Junior probably edged the final round after fighting with a little more urgency, but there were no eye-catching shots and there was a tense wait before the cards were announced.

They were far too wide. Kevin Parker had Junior ahead 96-94, Victor Laughlin scored it 98-93 whilst Mark Bates had him winning 97-93.

Junior collects the vacant WBC International title in an underwhelming performance.

Making his British debut, 19 year-old super flyweight, Tony Curtis Jr., was given a good six-round workout by Tanzanian southpaw Charles Tondo (16-10-3, 7 KOs).

Trained by the legendary multi-weight world champion, Roy Jones Jr., London-born Curtis Jr (11-1, 3 KOs) turned professional in Mexico three years ago and also has boxed in Thailand and Dubai.

He quickly stunned Tondo with a lead right hand but decided to exchange and got stung by a hard left hand in return.

From that point on, Curtis edged backwards and used his fast hands. He boxes with his chin in the air and looked disorganised whenever Tondo pressured him back to the ropes.

Clearly feeling little threat, Tondo began to ramp up the pressure. He launched a prolonged attack at the start of the fourth. Curtis managed to evade most of the shots coming his way, but more and more of the fight was being spent in Tondo’s preferred range.

Curtis managed to find enough space to be effective and eventually did enough to earn a decision. The score was 59-55.

Hassan Ishaq (1-0. 1 KO) made a heavily hyped debut and got off to a winning start. Fighting as a super bantamweight, he was too sharp for Brandon Gallardo (3-8-1, 1 KO) and stopped the Mexican in the third round.

Fighting in front of his cousin, world-ranked super middleweight, Hamzah Sheeraz, Ishaq didn’t allow the occasion to get to him and patiently picked Gallardo apart. Ishaq, 21, rocked his head back with a fast right hand. With very little coming back, he ran through the gears and a series of right hands forced the referee to save Gallardo in the third.

Although there are much, much tougher tests to come, Ishaq looked composed and accurate and will aim to get back int he ring as quickly as possible.

Once a highly rated amateur, Carl Fail’s career has stalled. The 27 year-old from Northampton, however, will be hoping to push on and fulfil his undoubted potential after returning from a near two-year injury absence to stop the aggressive Midlands Area junior middleweight champion, Amir Abubaker (9-1, 6 KOs), in eight entertaining rounds. The fight doubled up as an eliminator for the British title.

The two exchanged hard shots from the start, but Fail’s faster hands and better timing were obvious. He absorbed some heavy shots, but the southpaw stunned Abubaker on more than one occasion in the opening round.

Rather than trading punches, the 6-foot-1 Fail (11-0, 4 KOs) wisely used his skills and footwork. At times he fell into the trap of holding his feet, but for the most part he used his jab and straight left hand to keep Abubaker at bay.

Wary of walking into Fail’s sharp counters, the champion continued working at a meticulous pace. When Fail’s back touched the ropes, Abubaker was able to land his right hand and the odd left hook. Still, he found it difficult to string his attacks together.

Midway through the eighth, Fail found a perfect left hook that stunned Abubaker. His follow up attack was accurate and a series of clean shots forced the referee, Kevin Parker, to stop the fight. The time was 2.03.

Exciting super middleweight prospect, Taylor Bevan (5-0, 5 KOs), maintained his perfect start to his career by stopping Bosnia’s Zdenko Bule (15-16, 3 KOs) in the third round.

The 24-year-old got straight onto the front foot and clever mixed up his attacks to head and body. Bule tried to move and occasionally attempted to return fire but was badly outgunned. Early in the third, Bevan cornered Bule and dropped him with a left hook. Bule got up at the count of eight but the fight was waved off.

Bevan had never previously ventured beyond two round. The end came just 43 seconds into the third.

Maidstone junior middleweight, Mason Payne (5-0, 2 KO), remained unbeaten after stopping Octavian Gratii (8-89-4, 4 KOs) in the fourth of a scheduled six.

Gratii hasn’t won a fight for almost four years, but the Moldovan hardly ever gets stopped and Payne spent three rounds patiently probing away, looking for an opening.

Early in the fourth, Gratii seemed to injure his left leg after leaping in with a rare speculative left hook. The referee briefly let the action continue but stopped it after Payne landed a couple of right hands on his hobbling opponent.

Frank Wood (2-0) cruised to a routine four-round win over Peru’s Cesar Paredes (18-22-1, 5 KOs).

The super featherweight took the centre of the ring from the opening bell. He probed away with his southpaw jab. He put the occasional left hand behind it, but he couldn’t make a significant dent in Paredes. The score was 40-36.

In the opening bout, Iman Zahmatkesh (5-0, 4 KOs) notched a first-round knockout of of Ryan Labourn (0-33-2) at heavyweight.

The Sussex-based Iranian outpointed Labourn over four rounds earlier this year only to make short work of him this time. A short right uppercut got the job done for Zahmatkesh, who normally competes as a cruiserweight.