By Elliot Foster

Vijender Singh outlined his star quality as well as his credentials as a champion as he picked up his first professional title.

The Indian sensation, who had stopped all six of his previous opponents since turning over last October, impressed in front of a capacity crowd at the Thyagraj Sports Complex in New Delhi, exclusively live on Star Sports.

Singh added the WBO Asia Pacific super-middleweight title, which was vacant going into the ring, to his host of amateur accolades with a pretty one-sided win over Austalia-based Welshman Kerry Hope.

Hope took an awful lot of punishment throughout, suffering a cut and swelling under the left eye in the fourth round, but to his credit he continued plowing forward.

The mid-rounds went as the early rounds did with Singh using his star amateur quality to beat his man to the punch at each occasion.

But as the fight progressed, the later rounds became scrappy but Hope went for broke in the final stages, knowing that he needed a stoppage –– and a severe upset –– to add a second title in as many fights to his ledger.

It didn’t come and ultimately, the better, more skilled fighter on the night, 30-year-old Singh, rightly came away with the title after producing a dominant showing against the man four years his senior, who slips to 23-8 (2 KOs) in defeat.

After securing the win with scorecards of 98-92, 98-92 and 100-90, Singh –– who created history by becoming Indian first ever professional boxing champion –– advanced to 7-0 (6 KOs) and will be hoping to hoist his way up the WBO rankings in a bid to secure another title fight in the near future.