Clinton Woods retained his IBF light-heavyweight title in his home city of Sheffield with a ferocious and unanimous points victory over brave Mexican Julio Gonzalez.
Fighting for the first time in 12 months after undergoing two painful bouts of elbow surgery, Woods summoned a performance of seething intensity to see off his rival by scores of 117-111, 115-113, 116-112.
It was an exhilarating win for Woods, made all the sweeter because it confirmed his recovery from the persistent injury problems which denied him the chance to build on his career-best win over recognised world number one Glen Johnson a year ago. Woods had torn tendons in the course of that victory, and his subsequent problems forced the cancellation of a projected dream date on the undercard of Ricky Hatton's Las Vegas fight in June.
But he had insisted before this mandated rematch against Gonzalez that he would be better than ever, after finally preparing for a fight without having to go through the pain barrier.
Woods made good on his words from the start and produced a fight of the year contender. He shaded the first round with some good work inside and clearly won the second, after backing his opponent against the ropes.
Gonzalez looked cautious by contrast, and Woods was seizing every opportunity to dictate the pace of the contest. But once the Mexican began to find his range towards the end of the fourth, the fight changed from a likely one-sided win for Woods into a brawl in which both fighters withstood tremendous punishment.
Gonzalez clearly won the fifth, forcing Woods to back up for the first time in the fight and beginning to land blows of considerable substance with both hands as the champion back-pedalled.
Woods responded with a looping left hook right on the button early in round six, and the pair were soon exchanging clean blows once again as the fight's furious early pace showed no signs of slackening. Instead, the intensity grew.
Woods was put under heavy pressure towards the end of the eighth but responded in the ninth, as both men swung away and brought the crowd to its feet. The 10th was even better, Woods hurling bombs and Gonzalez crouched on the ropes before slashing back shots to temporarily stop the champion in his tracks.
Woods was narrowly ahead, though, and had a big 11th - sending Gonzalez reeling backwards from a left hand and cutting the challenger badly around his right eye, prompting close inspection from referee Dave Parris.
By the end of the contest, Woods too was cut. But he stayed on his feet to claim an absorbing victory and fire a message out to the other world light-heavyweight champions that he is anything but finished.
Woods said: "It was a tough fight, and I can't believe what a tough fighter Gonzalez is. I thought I was going to stop him in the 11th round - but somehow he stayed on his feet.
"To tell you the truth, I'm very tired after having a year out with my injuries. I found it hard getting rhythm but I wasn't really troubled in the fight. I'm very proud to have proved how well Sheffield fighters can fight." On the undercard, Huddersfield's Mark Hobson won back his old British cruiserweight title when referee Howard Foster stopped his bout with John 'Buster' Keeton in round four.
Veteran Keeton came out swinging, just as he had in the pair's previous meeting, but Hobson's power ultimately told - and Foster stepped up to spare the brave Sheffield man further punishment. Hornden heavyweight John McDermott got his career back on track with a 98-93 points win over Scott Gammer in an eliminator for a shot at current British heavyweight champion Danny Williams.