Sam Noakes Dominates Denys Berinchyk in London

Sam Noakes thrust himself back into the crowded lightweight title picture with a commanding unanimous decision over former WBO champion Denys Berinchyk at London’s O2 Arena.

The Maidstone fighter won by margins of 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92 after ten rounds, collecting the vacant WBO International title and improving his professional record to 19-1 with 16 stoppages. Berinchyk, returning after an absence of more than 18 months, fell to 19-2. Marcus McDonnell awarded Noakes every round, while Manuel Oliver Palomo and Jean Houblon found one and two rounds respectively for the Ukrainian.

Noakes announced his intentions with a short right hand inside the opening minute. He took the centre of the ring, moved forward behind a busy jab and forced Berinchyk to spend much of the evening circling near the ropes. The Ukrainian remained awkward and reasonably elusive, but there is a considerable difference between making a man miss and making him pay. Berinchyk managed the first part rather better than the second.

The third round firmly established the pattern. Noakes applied steady pressure without becoming reckless, cutting down the space and directing his heavier punches towards the body whenever Berinchyk’s movement carried him within range. The former champion tried switching between orthodox and southpaw, although the change of stance brought no meaningful change in fortune. His punches were too infrequent and lacked sufficient weight to discourage the advancing Englishman.

Noakes’ best work came through the middle rounds. He raised the tempo in the fifth and sixth, driving hooks and short rights into Berinchyk’s ribs and following upstairs when the Ukrainian lowered his elbows. The sixth was his busiest round, with 23 punches landed from 75 thrown. Berinchyk absorbed the punishment and continued moving, but by then the contest had begun to resemble an increasingly difficult exercise in damage limitation.

There was no knockdown and, despite Noakes’ reputation as a heavy puncher, no dramatic finish. Berinchyk’s experience and survival instincts saw to that. He had won Olympic silver in 2012 and later lifted the vacant WBO championship by defeating Emanuel Navarrete, so he was hardly likely to become distressed merely because the evening had turned disagreeable.

Berinchyk enjoyed his most productive spell in the eighth, when he finally stood his ground long enough to land combinations and outscore Noakes in the round. He also showed greater ambition during the closing stages, but his recovery came far too late to alter the result. Noakes regained control in the tenth, working behind the jab and finishing strongly enough to remove any lingering doubt, although there had been precious little of it.

The punch figures illustrated the scale of his superiority. Noakes landed 161 of 623 punches, compared with only 59 of 520 from Berinchyk. He held advantages of 53-19 in jabs and 108-40 in power punches, while 38 of his successful blows reached the body. Berinchyk connected with just 11.3 per cent of everything he threw, a statistic which says as much about Noakes’ pressure and defensive responsibility as it does about the Ukrainian’s inactivity.

This was an important and mature performance from Noakes following his first professional defeat, a competitive points loss to Abdullah Mason in their vacant WBO championship contest last November. He had returned with a second-round stoppage in May, but defeating a former world champion represented a far more meaningful step towards another opportunity at the highest level.

Berinchyk, now 38, was contesting his first bout since Keyshawn Davis stopped him in four rounds and took away his WBO crown in February 2025. He retained enough craft to hear the final bell, but after so long out of the ring, his timing and offensive sharpness were conspicuously absent. Noakes did not produce the spectacular conclusion the crowd may have anticipated, but he dominated a proven opponent and scarcely put a foot wrong. In the lightweight division, where ambition is plentiful and vacancies are not, that will do very nicely.

Sam Noakes did exactly what he needed to do against an ageing former champion: he took charge early, kept the pressure on and never allowed Denys Berinchyk to settle. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was disciplined, mature work and there was no argument about the result.

Noakes’ feet aren’t particularly pretty, but they are functional. He kept edging Berinchyk towards the ropes without charging in recklessly, then shortened his punches once he got within range. The body work was especially important. Berinchyk wanted space to change stance, create angles and nick rounds with quick combinations, but Noakes kept making him move and then punched underneath the elbows. That takes the spring out of an older fighter’s legs.

What impressed me was Noakes’ patience. Earlier in his career, he might have chased the knockout and walked into something silly. Here, he accepted that Berinchyk was awkward and difficult to pin down. He stayed behind the jab, maintained his balance and kept doing the harder, more effective work. That showed he learned something from losing to Abdullah Mason.

I’ll be honest about Berinchyk: he was poor. There were occasional reminders of the clever amateur and former world champion, particularly when he switched stance and briefly stood his ground late on. Still, he threw too little and offered almost nothing to stop Noakes coming forward. Moving without countering is not ring generalship; after a while, it is simply retreating. His long absence following the Keyshawn Davis defeat clearly did him no favours.

Noakes is back among the live contenders, but I wouldn’t pretend this proves he beats the division’s elite. Against Abdullah Mason, Shakur Stevenson or another quick, accurate counter-puncher, his upright approach can still be exploited. Even so, this was intelligent pressure boxing and probably the most controlled performance of his career.