McCloskey from Co. Derry had hoped to put on a classy display on boxing in front of his home fans but instead he found himself caught in a hard battle with experienced Lauri - a fight that looked like heading to the scorecards, until a cracking right hook that took the Italian right out of the game.

McCloskey produced only moments of sheer class in an otherwise poor performance by his own standards. But nothing can be taken away from him in his first defence of the belt when he landed the punch that mattered - a big right hook laying the Italian flat-out on the canvas.

"I'm happy with the result but annoyed with my performance - it was pretty poor by my standards," he told a sky sports reporter whilst being interviewed.

"Fights can pan out like that, and I pulled it out when I had to. It was a tough fight, and I made it tough. But I landed the shot that I needed to.

"I knew it was close and I had to do something. People talk about power but if you land the shot at the right spot at the right time then people will go down."