MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – David Adeleye won the British heavyweight title with a controversial sixth round stoppage of Jeamie “TKV” Tshikeva on Saturday.

Adeleye, 14-1 (13 KOs), claimed the vacant Lonsdale Belt on the undercard of Joe Joyce vs. Filip Hrgovic at Manchester, England’s Co-op Live Arena and the pair had come to blows multiple times on fight week. There was even more commotion in the ring.

Adeleye, fighting for the British title for the first time since his failed attempt against Fabio Wardley in 2023, caught Tshikeva, 8-2 (5 KOs), moments after the referee Ron Kearney had twice called break after a clinch. Tshikeva was downed heavily by the shot and never recovered, with Kearney waving the action off at 55 seconds of Round 6 - after the underdog was dropped again.

“The referee said ‘break’ and he got me,” said Tshikeva post-fight. “It is what it is. I was boxing well, it was going well.”

“It’s funny I lost the Wardley fight in the exact same way,” said Adeleye when asked about the incident. “I got caught on the clinch and the referee stopped it. You know what they say, swings and roundabouts. He [Tshikeva] did it to me, in the second or third [clinch].”

After the shenanigans earlier in the week it did not take long for both men to be warned about their behavior. Tshikeva was spoken to for pushing his arm into the face of Adeleye, 28, early into the first as things threatened to get ugly from the off.

Tshikeva, 31, snapped a jab into the face of Adeleye and, somewhat surprisingly, at the sound of the bell, both men touched gloves as they returned to their respective corners. The jab was on display again from Tshikeva in the second and, after planting a right hand on to the top of Adeleye’s head, he started to gain confidence.

Adeleye responded to Tshikeva’s success by starting to let his power shots go. He whipped in an overhand right that clipped Tshikeva on the temple and followed it with a sharp left hook that was only partially blocked. Tshikeva was visibly hurt by the shot and grabbed hold of Adeleye as he came in for the finish. 

Luckily for Tshikeva, the bell sounded seconds later and he pushed Adeleye on his way back to his corner. Adeleye started the third aggressively and again landed a right hand that thumped the top of Tshikeva’s head. Adeleye again found a home for his powershots in the fourth, he whipped in a left hook and slammed home a right uppercut as Tshikeva attempted to hold.

Tshikeva was still finding a home for his jab, but Adeleye was landing the more eye-catching shots and, better still, doing so with spite. Adeleye, seemingly uninterested in using his jab, began stalking Tshikeva around the ring in the fifth, waiting for an opportunity to whip in a left hook or overhand right.

As the sixth began, Adeleye spotted an opportunity to do exactly that and took it. During a clinch, Tshikeva pulled away with his hands low, and Adeleye quickly fired in a left hook that sent his opponent stumbling to the floor. Tshikeva returned to his feet, but was put down again shortly after by another vicious overhand right. Although he returned to his feet, he was deemed in no fit state to continue and Kearney waved it off. Whether legal or fair remains down to interpretation, however.