Sam Eggington scored a crucial career win taking a unanimous decision against veteran Carlos Molina in front of 500 fans at the Coventry Skydome on Saturday.

The Birmingham veteran won by margins of 116-112, 119-109 and 117-111 over 12 competitive rounds.

“This fight couldn’t have fell at a better time with fans coming back,” he said. “You could tell you need a sledgehammer to stop him, he was teak tough and he knew how to throw a left hook.”

Eggington, now 29-7, scored with a couple of early right hands in an entertaining first round but Molina had a better second as he warmed into the contest.

Sam started the third with intent and landed a couple of right hands, including one that sent an off-balance Molina, now 37-11-2, scurrying backwards.

The 27-year-old Englishman had some success as a southpaw in the fourth but the Mexican Molina registered his own shots after briefly trapping Sam on the ropes.

It was close and enthralling without catching fire.

Molina tried forcing the pace in round eight, but Eggington was often able to keep him on the end of long jabs and right hands and he was second best the rest of the way, though the 119-109 scorecard did Molina a disservice.

Los Angeles-based Irishman Stevie McKenna blew through Poland’s Damian Haus in a round.

McKenna knew what he wanted to do and started aggressively, banging away with both hands from the get-go. He landed big right hands but made his breakthrough downstairs with a pair of right hooks to the side of Haus’s body and a left hook into the other side.

Haus wilted and was given a count but it was only a temporary reprieve. McKenna attacked viciously again and launched in a couple of clean right hands that saw Haus crumble for a second and final time with moments to go in the first and only round.

“I want Conor Benn next year,” said McKenna, who is now 8-0.