Trowbridges’s Nick Blackwell is celebrating making history after becoming the youngest-ever English title holder with a pulsating victory over York’s Harry Matthew’s on Saturday night.

The 20 year-old, who trains out of Mark Kent’s Contender Gym, claimed the vacant English middleweight title at the University of Bath’s sports training village, continuing a flawless record of seven wins from seven bouts.

‘Bang Bang’ Blackwell faced a tough test against ‘The Pocklington Rocket’ Matthews, who stepped in to replace original opponent Matt Hainey, who pulled out after a bizarre cooking accident saw him cut off the top of his left thumb.

The match exploded into life from the off, with both fighters landing some big body shots and vicious hooks.

Blackwell was left nursing a bloody nose in the third round but Matthews was also taking some punishment as his mouthguard was sent hurtling to the canvas three times.

A contingent of Yorkshire-based fans did their best to cheer on their challenger, as Matthews tried his best to keep Blackwell at arm’s length with his jab, but their voices were no match for the legions of home supporters.

With Matthews already showing bruising to the left side of his face, the noise was cranked up to fever pitch in the sixth round as ‘Bang Bang’ landed a sweet right hook to leave his opponent on his back.

‘The Pocklington Rocket’ survived referee Mark Green’s count and dragged himself to the end of the round.

Blackwell could sense victory and despite a spirited fightback from Matthews in the final few rounds, the damage was already done and the roof was raised as the Trowbridge fighter was crowned the English champion with a unanimous decision of 98-91, 99-91 and 100 – 89.

Earlier in the night, Westbury welterweight Aaron Fox fought on through six rounds, despite breaking his jaw in two places.

The Contender Gym youngster was beaten 59-57 by Birmingham veteran Jason Nesbitt but dug out his fighting spirit after suffering the double-break in the opening round.

Melksham lightweight Liam Richards, also from the Contender Gym, cruised to victory over Manchester’s Abdul Rashid, winning 40-36.

The Melksham fighter rarely looked troubled as he put Rashid under constant pressure in a largely one-sided contest.

There was also success for the Contender’s Dan Carr, who opened the night with victory over Swansea’s Craig Dyer.

The Trowbridge lightweight worked his way around the Welshman’s body shots to take the tie 40-37.

Elsewhere, there was victory for Northampton super-bantamweight Nathan Reeve over Walsall veteran Delroy Spencer (40-36) while Swindon’s Kelvin Young edged a super-middleweight contest with Bristol’s Martin Robins (39-38).

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