James DeGale regained the IBF super middleweight title he lost in December to Caleb Truax with a bloody, 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

The fight was an immediate rematch of what many thought was the upset of the year in boxing in 2017. The 32-year-old DeGale (24-2-1 14 KOs) held the IBF world title at 168lbs for 31 months before losing it to the 34-year-old Truax (29-4-2, 18 KOs) on DeGale’s home turf in London.

“I’m back,” DeGale said. “Two-and-a-half years I had it and I lost it to Caleb. He embarrassed me, but we’re back.”

DeGale suffered a massive cut just over his right eye on an accidental head butt that led to extensive bleeding in the third round.

“I couldn’t see from my right eye,” DeGale said. “I couldn’t see. But I’m just glad I got through it. I showed some heart. In my last fight, I was like a weak little kid.”

DeGale connected on 37% of his power shots compared to 28% for Truax. He now returns to London a world champion with some massive potential fights in the future.

“I want to be busy,” DeGale said. “I have a couple years left in this sport.”

Truax was just the fourth boxing world champion ever from Minnesota.

“I thought I did enough to win the fight, but I also thought I was pretty flat and didn’t get my shots off like I wanted,” Truax said.

The rematch was the co-main event to the junior middleweight title unification fight between Jarrett Hurd and Erislandy Lara, where Hurd used a 12th-round knockdown to secure a split-decision victory to unify the IBF and WBA junior middleweight world titles.

Two judges scored the fight 114-113 for Hurd, while the third judge had Lara winning the fight by the same 114-113 scorecard.

Referee Kenny Bayless sends Jarrett Hurd (right) to his corner after he knocked down Erislandy Lara during their WBA/IBF junior middleweight unification title fight. Photograph: Sam Wasson/Getty Images

Hurd connected on a short left hook with less than a minute remaining, knocking down for former WBA champion Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs), the longest reigning champion at 154lbs entering the fight. Lara was attempting to defend his title for the sixth consecutive time.

“I didn’t feel like I needed the knockdown for the win,” said the 27-year-old Hurd, from Accokeek, Maryland. “I felt like I was in control the whole fight, applying the pressure.”

The win for Hurd (21-0, 15 KOs) sets up a potential mega-matchup against Jermell Charlo, who has held the WBC light middleweight world title since 2016.

Hurd is the seventh unified world title holder in 154lb history, joining Hall of Famers Terry Norris, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and Winky Wright, as well as Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez.

The 34-year-old Lara from Houston thought he won the fight, despite the knockdown in the final round.

“I was up by a large margin going into the last round,” said Lara, who suffered swelling and a cut around his right eye. “The problem was the cut on the eye. I couldn’t see in the last round.”