SWINDON super-heavyweight Luke Watkins eased to the final of the ABA Novice Championships with a comprehensive semi-final victory at the weekend.

Watkins, who is trained by Paddy Fitzpatrick at the Fitzpatricks gym in Swindon, won every round in his contest against Staffordshire fighter Lloyd Ramson to win by a unanimous decision.

Watkins, who is considering turning professional in the future, will now fight in the final of the competition next weekend in Staffordshire and goes into the contest in a confident mood following his semi-final victory in Birmingham.

“I got a unanimous decision on points, won every round and was up on every scorecard on points against a good boxer, so I was pleased to make it through and I thought I boxed well,” he said.

“I controlled the whole fight with my jab which was my aim going into it and is the key to all fights, so it was good to get the gameplan right.

“Making it to the final is a great achievement but I still need to keep going.

“Winning competitions like this is how you start getting recognition for what you’ve been doing and I’ve been pretty patient. I had a knee operation and my nose broken last year and things were up and down a bit in that time but things are going well at the moment.”

Watkins was a key sparring partner for George Groves in the build-up to his world title fight against Carl Froch, and the Swindon man was grateful his fellow Fitzpatrick-trained boxer made the effort to come and support him in Birmingham.

“George came down and sent me a nice text afterwards which gave me a few pointers and it was great he was able to be there,” he said.

“A lot of big boxers in his position would turn round and say they would come down but then not turn up on the day because they are too busy, but to see George there was really nice and it gave me a lot of encouragement.

“He has helped me a lot and the sparring I did with him before his fight with Froch was a great experience and it will all help me in my career.”

Another of Fitzpatricks’ boxers, Swindon light-middleweight Garvey Kelly, was in action in Chippenham at the weekend and was a unanimous winner in what was his fifth fight in six weeks.