Knockout caps dream debut for Bentham's Tomi Tatham (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Knockout caps dream debut for Bentham's Tomi Tatham

2:53pm Wednesday 10th October 2012 in Sport By Daniel Orr, Reporter

BENTHAM boxer Tomi Tatham made his professional debut in style when he knocked out his opponent in the second round.

Living up to his nickname of ‘TNT’, the 23-year-old light heavyweight overwhelmed Nick Gigg at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton, much to the delight of the fans who had travelled from the Craven town to support him.

Tatham said: “It was absolutely amazing. There were about 160 locals from Bentham who went along to cheer me on and they really helped. The atmosphere was incredible - something you couldn’t pay for.

“For the first round I got told to work my jab and establish myself. After the first round I said to the coach, ‘I feel strong, I feel like I can take control of this fight early and my coach said, ‘go for it’.

“I took the opportunity and I hit him with a clean shot and he was wobbling so I went for it and it worked.”

It was a dream start for Tatham, who has signed up to VIP Boxing Promotions in Manchester and built up an impressive record on the amateur circuit with an 80 per cent knockout rate and eight ABA titles.

Tatham added: “My debut was everything I hoped it would be and I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. I have a good coaching staff with me and some of the lads from the club were also boxing so that helped.”