Johnny Fisher got the result his new promoter needed, but not the performance his home crowd wanted. The “Romford Bull” ground out a majority decision over Michael Pirotton on his Zuffa Boxing debut at London’s Copper Box Arena, escaping with a divided verdict on the cards that told the real story of a scrappy, competitive main event.
| Winner | Johnny Fisher, by majority decision |
| Scorecards | 95-95, 98-92, 96-95 |
| Rounds | 10 (scheduled), heavyweight |
| Date | September 26, 2026 |
| Venue | Copper Box Arena, Hackney Wick, London |
| Card billing | Main Event, Zuffa Boxing 11 |
One judge had it even. That single scorecard is the clearest evidence that this was nowhere near the routine hometown win Fisher’s raucous “Bosh Army” crowd had shown up expecting.
Fisher opened with intent, swinging heavy hooks that opened a cut over Pirotton’s eye by the second round. The Belgian, a 6-foot-5 durable operator who had never previously been stopped, refused to be moved by the crowd noise or the early pressure. He told the referee he could see fine when a doctor came to check the cut in round four, and the fight was allowed to continue.
From there, the tide turned. Pirotton, bleeding but unbothered, produced his best round of the fight in the fifth as Fisher started to look tired and static. Both men traded big shots through the middle rounds without either landing the concentrated power to change the fight’s complexion, and Pirotton arguably shaded rounds seven and eight as Fisher’s work rate dropped off.
The tenth and final round delivered the moment that decided the fight on two of the three cards. Fisher unloaded a short right hand that shook Pirotton down to his boots, briefly threatening a stoppage that would have settled any scoring debate. Pirotton held on to hear the final bell, and Fisher’s storming close was just enough to swing two scorecards his way while a third judge saw it as an even contest.
Fisher’s production profile shows a fighter now 15-1 with 12 knockouts — a résumé padded by first-round finishes over the likes of Alen Babic and Dmitriy Bezus. But his last three appearances at heavyweight tell a more complicated story: a stoppage loss to Dave Allen at this same Copper Box Arena in 2025, a razor-thin split-decision win in the first Allen rematch, and now a majority decision over an opponent who entered as the away-corner underdog.
Pirotton, for his part, arrived with a 12-2 record and left it 12-3, but the two losses on his ledger — this one and a decision defeat to Juan Alberts last November — have both come against levels of opposition he was competitive with rather than overwhelmed by. His resilience against Fisher’s early pressure, and his ability to keep landing through a cut eye, extended his stay at this level rather than ending it.
The spread of 95-95, 98-92 and 96-95 is unusually wide for a fight without a knockdown or point deduction. It reflects a genuine disagreement about how much credit to give Fisher for a slow, pressure-based start against how much Pirotton earned in the middle rounds when Fisher’s work rate visibly dropped. The tenth-round right hand that shook Pirotton was decisive enough to influence two of the three judges, but not enough to erase four or five rounds of a genuinely competitive fight on the neutral scorecard.
The win keeps Fisher unbeaten in his first outing under the Zuffa Boxing banner after his move from Matchroom, and stretches his record to 15-1. But a narrow, laboured decision over a supporting-cast opponent does little to answer the bigger questions raised by the Allen stoppage — namely, how Fisher’s stamina and technique hold up against a heavyweight who can match his power. Whatever comes next for the Romford Bull at domestic or European level, Saturday’s performance suggests the gap between ticket-selling appeal and world-level readiness is still there to be closed.
For Pirotton, a third loss in fifteen fights against a name opponent on away soil is no disgrace. He leaves London having pushed a main event ten rounds and cost Fisher a share of his home crowd’s goodwill.
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