Brilliant Sykes wins English title

Dewsbury is waking up to a new national champion today (Saturday)after Gary Sykes defeated Kevin Hooper in Cleethorpes to win the English crown.

Sykes had to endure a partizan home crowd but produced a magnificent display to win the 10-round contest on all three judges scorecards.

One judge, surprisingly, had Sykes winning by just one round 96-95 but the other two had it by a much wider margin.

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Most at ringside, including many of Hooper’s own followers, had Sykes winning by four rounds.

The other two judges scored it 97-94 and 98-92 in favour of the Dewsbury man.

A slideshow of pictures from a great night in Cleethorpes will appear online this Monday, full fight report, reaction and what is next for Gary in next Friday’s paper.

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