‘It seemed like it was meant to happen’ – Leigh Park boxer Joel McIntyre wins English light-heavyweight title for the second time

The 34-year-old from Leigh Park stunned home favourite Chad Sugden 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 a raucous crowd in the process.

He had previously won the title by beating Miles Shinkwin at Liquid nightclub in 2016.

‘Everything went to plan,’ said Daron Wiseman, McIntyre’s coach for the last five years.

‘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 (Sugden) got up that we knew he was ok and Joel could celebrate.’

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.

‘We’d like a big venue,’ said Wiseman. ‘There’s a lot of support for Joel now people know he’s back.

‘We had a good crowd (up in Newark) and you could hear them over Chad’s supporters.

‘I’ve told Joel to take a couple of weeks off now. He’s been training twice a day for seven days a week. He can see family, eat some junk food – live a normal life again.’