Cummings received multiple warnings throughout the fight for low blows and pushing down on Meli's head before both fighters were deducted one point for excessive holding in the ninth round.
[7] The pair were set to face each other in an immediate rematch scheduled for 11 March 2017 at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales, featuring on the undercard of a British cruiserweight title fight between Craig Kennedy and Stephen Simmons.
However, the fight was cancelled one week before the event after Simmons – who was a replacement for Kennedy's original opponent, Matty Askin – had pulled out of the headline bout due to suffering an injury.
[9] Days after the date of the cancelled event it was announced a new fight had been scheduled for 24 March 2017 against Gogi Knezevic for the vacant WBO European middleweight title, taking place at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.
[11] The first defence of his newly won WBO regional title was scheduled to take place on 29 July 2017 against Robert Swierzbinski at the SSE Arena in Belfast, as part of the undercard for Carl Frampton vs. Andrés Gutiérrez.
[17] He bounced back from defeat with two wins in six-round bouts – Nicky Jenman by PTS in August[18] and Jan Balog by TKO in October[19] – before challenging for the vacant WBO European title for the third time in his career.