European bare-knuckle boxing champion Darren ‘Dazzler’ Hendry, from Bordon, has won his first world title after a dramatic bout in Sheffield.

Mr Hendry, 32, beat the British champion Matthew Hodgson in three rounds to scoop the World Bare Fist Boxing Association Championship.

He got off to an inauspicious start after suffering a cut above his left eye in the first round – but inflicted the same injury on his opponent in the second, and it was this wound that led the doctor to end the fight.

Mr Hendry, who used to box (with gloves) for the amateur boxing club in Bordon, admits to being a “tearaway” in his younger years and has served time in prison – but returned to boxing as he “wanted to do something positive with my life”.

Full story to follow in this Thursday’s Herald.