TARIQ Quaddus claimed his third win in two months as the Swindon-based super-middleweight took the decision over veteran Jody Meikle.

The 23-year-old fighting for the first time as a professional in his hometown of Peterborough won all four rounds for the 40-36 success over Scunthorpe’s One Man Riot.

And his trainer Richard Farnan said that it was another faultless performance from his charge as his return to the sport after a five-and-a-half-year hiatus gathers pace.

“It was an excellent performance - I can’t criticise it,” Farnan said.

“Jody is a tough and awkward fighter and it is hard to look good against him - but Tariq did.

“Jody very rarely gets stopped and there were a couple of times I thought that Tariq was going to do it, but he stayed focused and didn’t go charging in.

“We were originally going supposed to be facing Jamie Ambler, but he pulled out on the Wednesday and thankfully Jody stepped in.

“He has got his retirement fight on Saturday and when he left the ring he was bruised and bloodied he probably thought afterwards ‘why did I take this’ but I’m glad he did.”

Having returned to the sport in March, Farnan admits that Quaddus had a few more nerves than when he had his second fight in Gloucester last month.

“In Gloucester, Tariq was very relaxed, so much more than when he had his first fight under me in March,” the trainer said.

“But you could see that a few of those nerves were back on Saturday because he was fighting in his hometown.

“He got such a great reception though. We were first on and the crowd were so loud - they were fantastic.

“Everytime Tariq got his combinations off the noise got louder and when his arm was raised at the end it was deafening.”

Quaddus, who now has four wins and one defeat in five bouts, will be back in action on June 7 at the Oasis Leisure Centre on the undercard of Kelvin Young’s first defence of his IBO inter-continental super-middleweight title.

However, Keith Mayo’s hope of having Alicante-based Ricky Pow on the bill is in doubt after he was stopped in seven rounds by former WBO world light-heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo.

The Greenbridge-based promoter went over to Gran Canaria to see Pow tackle Chico Guapo and talk to him about appearing on his June show.