IMAGE GALLERY: O'Connor Wins New England Welterweight Title

Framingham boxer Danny O’Connor (26-2, 10KO) won the New England Welterweight Title Saturday afternoon, defeating Chris Gilbert (13-2, 10KO) at Agganis Arena in Boston.

O’Connor was in control of the fight from the start, dropping Gilbert in the ring a couple of times in the second round and again in the third round. The fight was called at 1:04 in the fifth round.

O’Connor landed more than three dozen body shots during the fight.

“The game plan was to be intelligent and use my skills. We didn’t think he was as skillful and I didn’t want to fight down to him. Luckily the body shots really affected him,” said O’Connor.

One shot delivered to the body in the second round had Gilbert in pain and trying to catch his breathe.

“Danny O’Connor is a slick well-rounded fighter. He just caught me with a great shot,” said Gilbert. “Danny is the best fighter I’ve fought so far.”

O’Connor, 30, who began his career with the Framingham Police Athletic League (PAL) boxing program was set to fight former two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on May 30. The bout was considered a career-making fight.

But in mid-May, Malignaggi sustained a cut over his left eyelid while sparring, forcing him to pull out of the fight.

“As soon as Paulie Malignaggi got injured I turned my focus towards this fight,” said O’Connor. “That’s all I thought about. ”

Ironically, O’Connor originally had been slated to fight in a featured bout at Agganis before giving up a spot on the NBC’s Premier Boxing Champions show at Agganis Arena to take on Malignaggi.

“I still want to fight Paulie,” said O’Connor.

While he was added back to the card yesterday, the Framingham boxer did not appear in the NBC televised portion of the event, and fought after the headlining fight between Olympians Andre Dirrell and James Degale.

The O’Connor fight was broadcast on NBC Sports network, a cable network of NBC.

DeGale, the first British fighter to win an Olympic gold medal, yesterday became the first Brit to win a world title.

Degale had Dirrell in trouble early knocking him down twice in the second round to open up a lead on the scorecards. Dirrell fought back strongly throughout the rest of the fight by using his jab and a series of combinations to occasionally stun DeGale, but was unable to make up the gap on the scorecards.

The judges’ scores were 114-112 twice and 117-109.

“I am speechless. In my whole career, what I have been building up to is winning a world title and I have finally done it. It is an unbelievable feeling. I have made history; I am the first British Olympic Gold medalist to become a world champion,” said Degale. ”I am back now and injury free. I will take on any super middleweight in the world. There is no other super middleweight in the world who will beat me. I am hard to beat when I am at my best.”

”All he did was run, no way I lost this fight,” said Dirrell.

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Click on the link below for a slideshow of photos from the O’Connor fight in Boston from Petroni Media Company.