Belfast super featherweight Ciaran McVarnock was left disappointed tonight in Spain after being held to a majority draw with the suprisingly game José Acero.

A late addition to the MGM ‘Lights Out at the Plaza’ show, ‘Bunty’ felt he lost too much ahead of the short-notice fight and then injured his hand in the first round.

Indeed, in the first round, the Belfast youngster was impressive, scoring countless uppercuts in three minutes of one-way action.

The bout was turned on its head in the second stanza with Acero badly stunning McVarnock and unleashing an unanswered barrage of heavy punches that the Irishman did well to survive.

The third round was more of an even affair with both landing heavy punches – gritty McVarnock the busier, but Acero perhaps the more eye-catching.

McVarnock controlled the all-important final round moreso than the previous two but the crowd-pleasing, show-boating Spaniard was always a danger.

And so, the see-saw battle was to be decided on the judges scorecards and, overall, they couldn’t split the pair, with two scoring the bout 38-38 and the other judge giving Acero the nod by one point (39-38).

McVarnock, however, should not despair too much after the draw. With his unbeaten record still intact, he will have learned more in tonight’s twelve minutes than he would have in twelve fights with cagey, non-throwing journeymey.

The 23 year old’s record now reads 4(0)-0-1, while the Spaniard, who amazingly had lost all his previous fights, improves to 0-7(1)-1.