Chris Eubank Jnr has moved into contention for a world title fight later this year after stopping Australia’s Renold Quinlan in 10 rounds at London’s Olympia. The victory – in his maiden fight at super-middleweight – gave the 27-year-old the lightly regarded IBO belt he claims should be treated as a true world title. It remains to be seen whether he will return to middleweight or remain at 168lb, but there is little question greater tests than the little-known Quinlan await.

It took until the end of the third round for Eubank to begin to impose himself as they fought on the inside by the ropes, and until a left hook in the fourth for Quinlan, also 27, to briefly appear hurt.

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A lack of true power has undermined Eubank in many of his previous fights, and it again appeared that would be the case until the sixth, when first an uppercut, then a right hook and finally a hurtful barrage left his opponent troubled.

From the seventh, and after taking further left-right combinations, Quinlan was a fighter being worn down and content to survive. The eighth and ninth became increasingly one-sided, as the aggressive Briton landed with ease and the resilient Australian clung on in a period when the referee Howard Foster should have waved the action over. The 10th remained similarly damaging until, with the tough Quinlan no longer able to defend himself from Eubank Jnr’s latest barrage, Foster ended the fight after two minutes and seven seconds.

Victory at super-middleweight means George Groves and James DeGale have joined Billy Joe Saunders as domestic rivals, and it is hoped will lead to a significant fight in the coming months.

The once-promising David Price’s career was earlier left in ruins after his latest stoppage defeat, this time by Romania’s Christian Hammer.

Price, 33, has now been stopped four times, and will struggle to rebuild his reputation, despite the previous two coming against opponents it later emerged had failed drug tests. He was exceptionally close to winning a competitive affair in the fifth when he knocked Hammer down with a right uppercut at the end of a hurtful combination.

Hammer, who lost to Tyson Fury in 2015, responded in the sixth, before forcing the referee Phil Edwards to intervene after 82 seconds with the tiring Price defenceless following a lengthy barrage against the ropes.