Stourbridge’s Scott Evans overcame the odds to win the British Masters title at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

Not only did he take the formidable Chris Long the full distance, his hand was raised at the final bell, in only the eighth fight of his professional career.

Evans was drafted into the main event at just a week’s notice, after Wolverhampton’s Rob Kenney pulled out.

He was in there with a fighter three times more experienced and some years his senior, but produced a battling display to ensure he made it through.

The welterweight, who turns 21 tomorrow, now feels that he has finally come of age in the world of boxing.

He said: “I went from boy to man in that fight. It was tough and a big difference to anything I have done before.

“Chris is a hard man who has been there and done it, so to go the distance was a massive thing for me.

“To come into this fight at a week’s notice and come away with this result, it’s more than I could have hoped for.

“To be the champion at the end of it, it is a dream come true.”