WORCESTER light-middleweight Leroy Williamson and Stourport welterweight Ernie Smith returned to action at Coventry's Skydome.

Smith, taking part in his 98th paid bout, once again found himself cast in the role of hard-working underdog against Leamington's hard-hitting Richard Mazurek.

Mazurek had won five and drawn one of his previous professional fights.

But Smith turned the formbook upside down to register a 58-57 six-round points victory on the scorecard of Dudley referee Sean Messer, his first win since a six-round points victory over Birmingham's Joe Mitchell in November, some 15 fights ago.

For long periods the action was untidy and both fighters picked up warnings for holding.

Smith lost a point in the third for persistent holding but by that stage had built a reasonable lead.

While the Leamington man upped his work-rate in the closing couple of rounds, his efforts proved insufficient to earn a share of the spoils.

Williamson, meanwhile, suffered a 59-56 six-round points defeat at the hands of debutant and former amateur star Neil Tidman.

Tidman found the target with regular rights and generally out-worked his opponent, despite the Worcester man landing the best punch of the fight, a right hand in the second.

Williamson improved in the latter stages, forcing the Bedworth fighter to work off the ropes on one occasion following a two-fisted volley, but was still getting caught by left-rights .

While walking through most of these, enough found their target to ensure it was Tidman's arm that was raised by Messer at the end.