MICHAEL Hunter's first defence of his European crown was short and sweet. With just 100 seconds of the second round gone he successfully disposed of Kazakhstani challenger Yersin Jailauov last night.

The Hartlepool boxer, who is also the Commonwealth and British champion, had gained the upperhand at the Borough Hall, and had already rocked Jailauov in the latter stages of the opening round.

That continued from the bell in the second and, albeit controversially, Finnish referee Erkki Meronen stopped the fight after Hunter inflicted his first real bit of pressure on his opponent.

A left, then right combination rocked Jailauov who, as he turned his back away in the neutral corner, was then stopped from continuing by Mr Meronen when many expected the bout to go on.

Nevertheless Hunter can now look forward to a third fight in front of the Sky cameras - even if last night's defence in front of his home town fans ended quicker than he first thought.

"I have been working on my power," Hunter said. "I didn't hit him with all of it but I thought 'I have got him here'. If the referee hadn't have stepped in I was going to hurt him."

Meanwhile, Hartlepool-born boxer Steve Conway repeated his pre-Christmas heroics to become IBO light-middleweight world champion.

Conway, who overcame Hungarian Mihai Kotai at Nottingham's Ice Arena in December in a non-title contest, went one better when it really mattered to outclass the reigning No.1.

The IBO may not be the most respected belt in the world to claim but the way Conway, who moved to Yorkshire when he was ten but still has family in the North-East, celebrated illustrated just what it meant.

The 28-year-old was awarded a unanimous points victory over Kotai after 12 rounds of boxing, with the three judges scoring the contest 112-116, 111-116 and 111-118 in the Englishman's favour.

"You could see by the way I was jumping around in the ring how much this means to me," he said. "It's been a long time coming, I've waited ten years for this."