‘ONCE bitten, twice shy’ Joe Hughes can finally breathe easy after getting his hands on the English belt he’s long coveted on Saturday night.

The 24-year-old became the new English light-welterweight champion at the Bath Pavilion but only after a gruelling battle with the tricky Anthony Hardy and the heart-stopping moment where one of the ringside judges ruled against him at the end of ten rounds, before the Malmesbury fighter took a split decision (98-92, 98-92, 95-97).

Hughes’ relentless pressure style was enough to negate his Durham opponent’s superior height and range and secure a landmark national triumph, even if the final announcement was more nerve-wracking than he would have liked.

“He gave me a good fight and fair play to him taking it as well because not many people wanted to fight me,” said Hughes.

“In the first half of the fight, I was trying to put the pressure on him. I wanted to try and work him but I could see that I wasn’t really getting that much through and it was getting scrappy, so I decided to just box for a couple of rounds.

“I then thought I was winning comfortably and when it came to the last two rounds, I thought I’d step it up and make it clear.

“And I’m glad I did because I don’t know what one of the judges saw. One of the first ones was 98-92 and I thought ‘yeah, that’s about right’ but then when the other one gave it to him 97-95, I couldn’t understand it.

“I’ve had plenty of fights where I thought I’ve won and I haven’t. I don’t like to be overconfident. You see a lot of people jumping around in the ring before the decision’s been announced and I’m almost ‘once bitten, twice shy’ with fights.

“You always think the worst and that’s why I wanted to put the pressure on and take it out of the judges’ hands but I couldn’t get him out of there and fair play to him.”

Meanwhile, Swindon’s Kelly Morgan, 35, got her professional career off to a sensational start, stopping Klaudia Vigh in one minute and 34 seconds, knocking her opponent down twice in the opening round.

And her trainer Richard Farnan revealed that the former Commonwealth Games javelin bronze medallist’s only real mistake in the ring was an unnecessary display of sportsmanship.

“I said to Kel that my only criticism was, that after the knockdown, she touched the glove. I said: ‘next time when that happens, don’t go and touch gloves again before you start – just let her have it’,” said Farnan, whose debutant had been made to wait for her professional bow after a show in Swindon was cancelled last month.

“By the time everything had been arranged and organised and set-up, we had seven days to sell tickets and to pay for the fight, Kel needed to sell 70 tickets.

“And including (Saturday) morning, she just managed to do it. Kel had the stress of that as well as preparing for a fight.

“But what we saw from Kelly was exactly what I expected from her and, like I’ve said before, I didn’t think that it would go to the second round – my only hesitation was that it was a two-minute round.

“She did great.”