Nicky Jenman won the Southern Area middleweight belt tonight in a thrilling ten round war with Nathan Graham.

The Brighton fighter brought the Metropole Hotel crowd to their feet as he slugged it out with his rival from Aylesbury before claiming a 98-94 points victory.

The scaffolder reached a new high in his career as he dug deep to see off his equally determined rival in a fight that caught fire from the seventh round.

Jenman had Graham rocking in that round but could not finish him off as he stumbled back to the corner.

It sparked a war with Graham firing his own bombs from then on in a desperate bid to blow Jenman away.

By the tenth and final round the pair were locked in toe-to-toe combat, exchanging shots at close range with both looking capable of knocking the other out.

But it was Jenman who celebrated the biggest win of his career at the end when his hand was raised in front of his ecstatic home support.