Cheavon Clarke dropped his stand-in opponent with the last shot of a dominant performance on Saturday night.

Opponent Israel Duffus - fighting at late notice after the withdrawal of Clarke’s scheduled opponent Dec Spelman - went down twice in the sixth round, again in the seventh and was on his backside once more in the 10th, getting back to his feet seconds before the end of the contest.

Duffus - who started confidently enough in the cruiserweight fight - faced some big shots from Clarke and was no match, although he showed durability to last the distance, denying the Gravesend former Olympian boxer a fifth-straight KO victory.

It was a unanimous points victory for Clarke, scoring 98-88, 98-88, 98-90 from the ringside judges, impressing the commentators too, who remarked at the end after a big right-hand: “Down goes Duffus! Brilliant shot, beautifully timed, the last shot of the contest.”

It was a great way to end a fight - on the undercard of the Leigh Wood versus Mauricio Lara WBA World featherweight pay-per-view event - one that wasn’t what had been planned.

Clarke, 32, had been billed to face Dec Spelman at the Nottingham Arena in a final title eliminator but the former light heavyweight English champion was forced into retirement after failing a brain scan.

Having trained hard for the Spelman fight, Clarke was keen to see some action, leading to Duffus’ call-up, a Panama-born cruiser with a record of 20 wins (17KOs) and eight defeats before the weekend. It was his first fight in over a year.

Prior to the weekend Clarke’s last fight, in November, was ended with a stunning second-round knockout of Jose Gregorio Ulrich at Wembley Arena.

Clarke stopped the Argentinian boxer (17-6) with a devastating uppercut. It wasn’t the fight the Kent boxer had trained for but the rounds banked will have done him no harm infront of a big crowd in Nottingham.

Matchroom Sport chairman and promoter Eddie Hearn tweeted: “Tough fought win for Cheavon - big step up in just (his) fifth fight.”