Joel McIntyre regained the English light-heavyweight title six years on from first winning the belt
Portsmouth puncher Joel McIntyre (20-4, 5KO) regained the English light-heavyweight belt – six years after first lifting it in a Portsmouth nightclub.
The 34-year-old from Leigh Park stunned home favourite Chad Sugden (12-3-1, 4KO) at the Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire in only his second outing since retiring in December 2018.
McIntyre claimed an eighth round stoppage against the former world kickboxing champion in Newark, silencing the raucous home crowd in the process.
He had previously won the title by beating Miles Shinkwin at Liquid nightclub in 2016.
The home fighter was cut above the right eye in the fifth round as a result of 'El Toro's' dominant performance.
The 34-year-old had studied up on his opponent to give himself an advantage in the ring, and his researched worked.
‘Everything went to plan,’ said Daron Wiseman, McIntyre’s coach for the last five years, to The Portsmouth News.
‘The whole (training) camp went to plan, the build-up went to plan, the fight went to plan. It couldn't have gone any better if we’d wanted it to.
‘It seemed like it was meant to happen.
‘We’d watched hours of footage of Chad’s fights – even his kickboxing ones – looking for a potential weakness. And when we spotted one, we were working on it in the gym over and over. It got boring in the gym but it had become second nature to Joel by the time he was in the ring.
‘We could see Chad had a slow jab and that’s what we worked on. In the eighth round Joel caught him on the counter and down he went.
‘Around the fifth round we could see Chad was deteriorating while Joel seemed to be getting stronger – that’s due to all the fitness work he’s done with David Birmingham.’
Sugden was roared on by a big home support. ‘He’d sold around 600 tickets, it was a massive venue. The walk to the ring was electrifying – the booing for Joel was mad!
‘We had to upset the party. I’ve never seen Joel so fit and so focussed. It was all about the comeback. He wasn’t getting beat by anyone that night.
‘Joel was very professional. There was a doctor in the ring at the end giving Chad some air, and it was only when he got up that we knew he was ok and Joel could celebrate.’
McIntyre has now scored back to back knockouts, taking just 30 seconds to defeat unbeaten Nikita Basin in his last fight in October last year.
As part of the two-fight deal that had been arranged, McIntyre will make his first defence of his English title against Sugden.
The fight will ‘hopefully’ take place in Portsmouth around October time.
