Terence Crawford v Egidijus Kavaliauskas: WBO welterweight championship – live!

Conlan improves to 13 wins in as many professional fights with a unanimous-decision win over Vladimir Nikitin. The ringside judges’ scores of 98-92, 99-91 and 100-90 (!) are laughable, but this was a breakthrough performance of sorts by Conlan, who showed the finishing kick of a seasoned pro in the ninth and 10th rounds in beating back a fierce rally by Nikitin, who came on so strong in the middle act.

Conlan’s revenge bid has gotten a bit hairy in the later stages. A crowd-pleasing eighth round descended into the Irishman and Niktin simply trading leather in the center of the ring. Conlan got it back on the rails a bit in the ninth, winning a cagier round on superior body work and taking an 86-85 edge on the Guardian’s card. And now Conlan appears to have done enough in the crowd-pleasing 10th to finish the task. We’ll see if the judges agree.

Michael Conlan came out sharp in his revenge match with Vladimir Nikitin. The two-time Irish Olympian boxed beautifully from the opening bell, circling the cruder Niktin and tagging him with one-two combinations upstairs to win four of the first five rounds. But Niktin has come on strong in round six and seven, finding range with the left hook as Conlan has started to slow down a bit and present a more stationary target. Three more rounds to go.

Hello and welcome to Madison Square Garden for tonight’s WBO welterweight title fight between Terence Crawford and Egidijus Kavaliauskas. Crawford (35-0, 26 KOs) is returning to action for the first time since a sixth-round technical knockout of Amir Khan in this same building. But rather than a big-money fight with Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr or any one of the other big names at 147lbs, the Omaha native has been forced to settle for the WBO’s mandatory challenger in Kavaliauskas (21-0-1, 17 KOs), a two-time Olympian for Lithuania fighting out of Oxnard, California.

Before that, however, a pair of intriguing co-features. First it’s Ireland’s Michael Conlan (12-0, 7 KOs), who is out to avenge a pair of amateur losses to Vladimir Nikitin (3-0, 0 KOs) – including his nightmarish Rio “defeat” at the hands of the Russian. Then highly regarded contender Teofimo Lopez (14-0, 11 KOs) will face off with Richard Commey (29-2, 26 KOs) for Commey’s IBF lightweight title.

Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a look at tonight’s order of play in reverse order.

• Terence Crawford v Egidijus Kavaliauskas, 12 rounds, for Crawford’s WBO welterweight title
• Richard Commey v Teofimo Lopez Jr, 12 rounds, for Commey’s IBF lightweight title
• Michael Conlan v Vladimir Nikitin, 10 rounds, featherweights
• Josue Vargas v Noel Murphy, 10 rounds, junior welterweights
• Edgar Berlanga v Cesar Nunez, 8 rounds, super middleweights
• Julian Rodriguez v Manuel Mendez, 8 rounds, junior welterweights
• George Kambosos Jr v Mickey Bey, 10 rounds, lightweights