THE first Derbyshire ABA Championship Finals night produced two new champions and set the tone for many more events to come.

This was a night to showcase the Challenge Belt series, initiated just over a year ago to provide the county's senior amateur boxers with championship experience and the chance to fight for a prestigious title, and it was a big success.

A sell-out crowd at Derby County's Pride Park Stadium saw four Challenge Belts contested and two eliminators to determine the next in line. Other Belt contests fell through because of injuries and withdrawals, which is inevitable though sad all the same, but this is a format that should only get bigger and stronger from here.

It should become at least an annual event on the county amateur calendar and boxers should aspire to be a part of it.

Three champions put their titles on the line. Two held on and the third could take some comfort from having lost to the outstanding boxer of the night.

Ryan Fields had almost four and a half years out of the ring before returning for South Normanton this season and had won all four of his comeback bouts. The 19-year-old was up against Merlin's Don Itutu for the welterweight title.

Fields was the sharper from the start, stepping in and scoring cleanly to take all the early initiative. Defensively, he was good too and Itutu found it difficult to make much impression.

A left hook early in the second sent Itutu back towards the ropes and though the Merlin boxer recovered well from that, he was too often wide open as Fields found the target with half a dozen or more left hooks in the last minute of the round.

The champion did land scoring shots of his own but had plenty to do to save his title in the last but Fields stayed on top and a standing eight count, after Itutu was trapped against the ropes in the last minute, confirmed the unanimous decision, 23-14, 18-13, 17-8 on the three judges' cards.

Merlin were closer to taking the verdict through their light-welterweight challenger, Asif Akhtar, against Kristian Davey of Spire, who had already successfully defended once and won the previous meeting of the two boxers in October.

Akhtar, who returned from 18 months out in that last meeting, jumped out on to the front foot to disturb Davey early on, though the younger man came more into the first round the longer it went on.

As Davey pressed, Akhtar was twice cautioned for holding and this was to prove a key factor as, midway through the second, he grabbed again and was given an official warning.

There remained very little to choose between the two boxers but the two points Akhtar lost cost him dear. The verdict was unanimous but two of the judges had Davey only 10-9 and 12-10 up after the deduction, with the third a more clear-cut 21-14.

The third champion in action was Splash Fit's Sam Godfrey, who was defending against the man he coached to the inaugural middleweight title, Haleem Shaffiq.

Godfrey was prepared to wait for Shaffiq to make the first move and the tactic served him well, as he was able to either pick off the man coming in or slip his opponent's shots neatly.

Shaffiq, now with Derby City, did not cope well with Godfrey's southpaw stance or his slick defences and though that made for few scoring blows in a majority verdict, the champion deserved to keep his Belt.

Two judges scored it 7-5 to Godfrey and the third 8-7 to Shaffiq.

The vacant lightweight title was fought between Zavier Hobby of Chadd and Buxton's Adam Sircar, who never really settled into the bout as Hobby, sharper to the punch and quicker on his toes, won unanimously.

Hobby had his man under real pressure for spells in the third round and clearly took the decision 18-7, 9-4, 7-4.

His first challenge is due to come from Danny Hewitt of Spire, another returning to the ring keen to make up for lost time.

The taller Thomas Robinson was the busier boxer, jabbing nicely to make good use of his reach advantage and also connecting, later in the bout, when Hewitt did get inside. The right hook of Hewitt was always the danger punch and Robinson did leave his chin exposed a few times but a unanimous verdict against the Trinity youngster was harsh, the judges scoring it 14-10, 13-8, 12-7.

The light-welterweight eliminator between Royal Oak's Callum Parker, looking for a second crack at Davey's Belt, and Buxton's Romans Belousous turned on its head midway through the third round.

Parker came through an initial flurry from the Lithuanian to stand tall behind his jab and move ahead by the end of the second but a left hook sent him to the canvas midway through the third and he had to take another eight count in the closing seconds as Belousous got though with a further good left.

That tipped the balance, with all three judges going for Belousous 14-10, 12-10, 11-11.

In the night's three support bouts, Loui Hemstock (Trinity) was a unanimous winner against Chadd's Charlie Brown, Jon Pickering (Buxton) beat Danny Sansom (South Normanton) unanimously and Josh Sears made it three out of three for Spire on a split decision against Kyle Hughes (Trinity).