Luke Campbell beats Darleys Perez to earn WBA lightweight title shot against Jorge Linares

Luke Campbell has defeated Colombia's Darleys Perez in nine rounds at Wembley Stadium to earn his shot at WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares.

The Olympic gold medallist, whose fight was watched from ringside by Venezuela's Linares, secured the finest win of his career by appearing to win all but the first of the full eight rounds of the title eliminator until Perez withdrew in the ninth.

His superior skill-set and natural power had gradually built a convincing lead as he landed to both head and body, and from the eighth round Perez became increasingly uncomfortable.

Wearing the look of a fighter being worn down and unable to stop the flow of Campbell's attacks, in the ninth he complained to referee Steve Gray he had injured his left arm before attempting to fight on.

He did so with little conviction, and as Campbell applied further pressure, Gray intervened and waved the fight over after one minute and 28 seconds of that round.

Ireland's Olympic gold medallist Katie Taylor earlier inflicted the first professional defeat of Nina Meinke's career by stopping the German in the seventh of 10 two-minute rounds.

In the latest demonstration of the impressive variety of her punching, she consistently outclassed Meinke until referee Howard Foster halted the increasingly one-sided action with Meinke suffering heavy swelling by her right eye.

There was also a win for Wales' Joe Cordina, the Rio 2016 Olympian, who stopped Russia's Sergej Vib in the first round to earn his second stoppage from two professional fights.