Royston Barney-Smith said that he “needed to step up to another gear” for Saturday’s win against Danny Quartermaine.

“Sugar Boy Roy” outclassed his opponent at the O2 Arena on the way to a unanimous decision, claiming the WBO and IBF European super-featherweight belts.

At 21, Barney-Smith remains unbeaten with 15 wins to his name.

“It’s a big win and I’m really happy with the performance,” he told BBC Sport.

“It meant a lot to me after an injury and some time out the gym this year, I just knew I had to step everything up to another gear and I did that.

“Every round I was hurting him so I just knew it was going to be a matter of time before I took him out, I knew I was capable of winning this fight and I did that but It was lingering on my mind.”

This fight was originally scheduled to take place earlier in the year on the south coast in Bournemouth.

But Southampton’s Barney-Smith had to pull out of the contest after suffering a knee injury weeks before the event.

Throughout the contest he looked the superior operator, landing clean strikes as Quartermaine tried to make the bout awkward later on with erratic flurries forward.

Southpaw Barney-Smith – who is trained by Ben Davison – hurt his opponent on a couple of occasions before dropping him in the 10th and final round with a sweet short right hand.

Quartermaine was a fighter the young talent had suggested to promoter Frank Warren as someone he wanted to test himself against.

“I needed to have a breakthrough fight,” Barney-Smith added.

“I’ve been screaming for one for the last year and I finally had my chance so I took it with both hands.

“I don’t want to keep fighting journeymen who keep running away from me, I want to fight a live opponent and land some big shots and that is what I did tonight.”