Victorian veteran Sam Soliman displayed the savvy accumulated through a 15-year professional boxing to outpoint Garth Wood on Sunday.

Soliman won the interim IBF Pan Pacific middleweight title with a unanimous 12-round points decision at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.

He won by scores of 117-114, 118-110 and 110-109, crowning the job with a final round knockdown.

The 38-year-old Melbourne fighter (41-11, 17 KOs) worked well off his jab and landed more accurate punches.

Wood (10-3-1) landed a number of good one-off right hand shots but the 33-year-old couldn’t sustain pressure against his slippery opponent.

As anticipated, the awkward styles of both men made for a scrappy fight, with plenty of holding and pushing.

Between them, the two men would have ended up on the floor at least 20 times, but until the final round referee John Cauci ruled each one either a slip or a push.

Cauci showed enormous patience, cautioning both men on a number of occasions, with the fight sometimes resembling a wrestling match more than a boxing bout.