Nathan Heaney defended his British middleweight title after a draw with Brad Pauls tonight in Birmingham, England, and both fighters put on an exceptional, grueling fight that represented the best possible British title fights.

Heaney (18-0-1, 6 KO) had one card in his favor, 116-113, and another went to Pauls (18-1-1, 10 KO) with a score of 115-114. The final card was even at 114-114. All were reasonable scores.

Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 115-113 for Heaney.

Heaney, 34, was making his first defence of the belt he won from Denzel Bentley last year and his vocal fan base backed his game, making the fight in Birmingham even better. But against the determined 30-year-old Pauls it was never going to be effortless and by the end of the dramatic 12-round fight both men were bloodied and battered.

It would seem a good idea to repeat the fight in a rematch this summer, when Heaney hopes to fight outdoors in his hometown of Stoke.

In the main event, rising super bantamweight contender Liam Davies continued his thrilling run to a world title with a second-round TKO victory over Eric Robles.

Davies (16-0, 8 KO) won the slightly perceived IBO “world championship” with this victory, but in fact it is no secret that he will want to reach for one of the remaining titles. The division is, of course, currently ruled by undisputed champion Naoya Inoue, which is an undisputed statement as no one considers the IBO to be a contentious issue. But Davies is a real contender at 122 pounds and he’s damn fun to watch.

Heavyweight Joe Joyce returned and looked uncertain, but he defeated Kash Ali by knockout in the final round with seven seconds left in the fight. Ali (21-3, 12 KO) got up, but at nine o’clock, and referee Kevin Parker ordered the fight and announced that he had counted to 10.

It really wasn’t an encouraging performance for the 38-year-old Joyce (16-2, 15 KOs), who weighed a career-best 286 pounds and looked ponderous and robotic even for him, coming off two straight losses to Zhilei Zhang.

Dennis McCann retained his Commonwealth super bantamweight title and added the previously vacant British title with a unanimous decision victory over Brad Strand. The scores were 116-112, 116-111 and 118-111 for McCann (15-0-1, 8 KO), who seemed to believe he won every round.

Bad Left Hook led 117-110 for McCann, giving Strand (11-1, 3 KO) the final two rounds, which McCann survived while the underdog gave it his all and fired a few shots. Strand never came close to winning at any point and was eliminated in the second round.

More results

• Zach Parker UD-10 Tyron Zeuge (96-94, 97-92, 98-91)
• Owen Cooper RTD-9 Eithan James (3:00)
• Pierce O’Leary KO-9 Hovhannes Martirosyan (2:39)

William Zepeda performed as expected tonight in the DAZN main event, completely overwhelming Maxie Hughes for four rounds before Hughes’ corner was forced to stop the fight.

Zepeda (30-0, 26 KO), known for his pressure and exact volume, started speedy, but Hughes (26-7-2, 5 KO) was expecting that and started speedy himself, ready to counter as often as he could, landing some well-timed shots. The problem for Hughes, however, is that the pace was one that Zepeda was completely accustomed to, while Hughes is not, and it quickly began to work.

By the second round, Hughes was already showing difficulty maintaining the pace that Zepeda was setting and was unable to land anything significant that would stop Zepeda from coming at him without a worry. By the third and fourth rounds, Hughes was basically exhausted and had to spend time trying to defend as much as possible in the face of an overwhelming attack.

By the end of round 4, Hughes had taken as good a beating as many fighters take on the 12, and since it was obvious at that point that he had nothing left to offer in the way of resistance, Hughes’ corner thankfully stopped the fight.

The most critical information under the card

• Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KO) DQ-5 Esteuri Suero (13-2, 10 KO)

• Eric Priest UD-10 Jose Sanchez (100-90, 99-91, 99-91)

• Tristan Kalkreuth (13-1, 10 KOs) TKO-2 Marquice Weston (15-3-1, 8 KOs)

• Joel Iriarte (1-0, 1 KO) TKO-2 Bryan Carguacundo (3-6-2, 0 KO)

Thursday, March 21

DAZN and Social Media9:00 a.m. Eastern time, Smith vs. Zepeda press conference.

DAZN and Social Media6:30 p.m. Eastern time X Series 013 press conference.

Friday, March 22

DAZN and Social Media9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Smith vs. Zepeda Weigh-In.

ThrillerTV+1:00 p.m. Eastern time BKFC 58 Bulgaria: Toni Markulev vs Kaloyan Kolev.

TNT Sports (UK)2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Chris Bourke vs. Ashley Lane fight. For the vacant British bantamweight title. This isn’t the one that ESPN+ felt was necessary.

DAZN and Social Media6:30 p.m. Eastern time X Series 013 weighing.

Saturday, March 23

DAZN and Social Media12:30 EST, Smith vs. Zepeda Preliminaries.

DAZN15:00 Eastern time, Dalton Smith vs. Jose Zepeda. Matchroom gives Smith a test he must pass here. Zepeda is past its best days and hasn’t had a really good win since 2020, but it’s a famed international brand and all that. If Smith is who Matchroom wants him to be, he should win here easily.

DAZN7:30 p.m. Eastern time Series X 013: Fox the G vs. Most Evil Tag Team. That’s right, a 2-on-1 match. I don’t know how much more clearly we can show that this has gone down to the pro wrestling level, but it’s actually unfair. Being a pro wrestler would be a step up.

ThrillerTV PPV20:00 Eastern time, Sebastien Bouchard vs. Jan Michael Poulin. 20 dollars! This is why! I mean, you can do whatever you like. We all have our quirks. Free prelims are also available an hour earlier on TrillerTV.

Sunday, March 24

ThrillerTV PPV8:00 PM EST, “Celebrity” is currently fighting Las Vegas. Apparently, this event is attended by “stars”. It’s $15. For “celebrities”.