It is becoming more and more difficult to come up with adequate superlatives to describe the talents of Hornchurch boxer Steve Roberts.

Time and again, Roberts, the WBF light middleweight champion, has delivered the goods with the minimum of fuss and a good degree of skill that had seen him undefeated in 23 contests prior to the third defence of his title at Wembley Conference Centre last Saturday.

However, despite his unblemished record, there were still some in boxing circles expecting Roberts to come unstuck against former WBC light middleweight champion Keith Mullings, an American who had never been stopped inside the distance - but, it seems, Roberts had not read the script.

Roberts entered the arena to rapturous applause and was certainly in no mood to let down his army of supporters.

After an initial period of measuring up each other, both men set to work, but it was Roberts who surprised the American in the First round with a right hook to the top of the forehead which saw Mullings go down.

He immediately got back to his feet but was forced to endure a standing count of eight before being allowed to continue.

Buoyed by Mullings' setback, Roberts went straight back to work and ended the round with a confident display of combinations.

Over recent years, Roberts, who is always professional in his approach, has built up a reputation of being a rather ponderous and clinical technician, rarely regarded as being one of the more flambouyant boxers.

However, last time out, Argentinian Sergio Acuna was blown away inside a round at the same venue as Roberts notched up his 10th victory inside the distance.

Maybe that little detail had escaped Mullings as, within a couple of minutes of the second round, a stunning right to the head had him reeling against the ropes and, almost immediately, the referee wrapped his protective arms around him to save him from further punishment.

To his credit, Mullings appeared to retreive his senses quite quickly and was absolutely furious that the referee had ended his challenge so prematurely.

But there is little doubt the referee was right to call a halt to the proceedings.

Better still, Roberts not only retained his title in fine style against a highly regarded opponent, but did so live on television with a performance that can only further boost his stature within the sport worldwide.

"What can I say after that?" said a delighted Roberts. "I'm happy it was another good performance, although I wasn't expecting it to go as quickly as it did.

"I wanted Mullings to know in the first couple of rounds that I was there to fight and could hit hard so, if he wanted to commit himself, I was going to hit him as hard as I could."

Modestly, Roberts dismissed the knockdown in the first round: "It was more a slip than anything, although I did make contact," he said. "I don't think he was in any trouble, but I just took my time because I didn't want to take any risks.

"As for the end, I know he didn't go down, but the only thing he had to hold onto was the ropes, and that means he was gone as far as I'm concerned.

"I'd certainly have got him with a few more shots if the referee hadn't stepped in anyway, and he would have gone over then for sure, so it was the right decision to stop the fight."

Earlier in the evening, Hornchurch-based Richard Evatt took on Ukranian Rakeem Mingaleev over four rounds.

This was Evatt's first contest in six months, but he did enough to earn a 40-36 points victory, a win that sets him up nicely for a possible world title challenge in Liverpool on April 24.

First of all though, Evatt must hope the cut he sustained over his left eye towards the end of his contest against Mingaleev will heal suffiently for the fight to go ahead.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.