Lovell defeats Blackwell at York Hall

The 22-year-old was taking on his opponent, the brother of Nick Blackwell, who had to recently retire from the sport due to life-threatening injuries suffered in a bout against Chris Eubank junior recently.

Nick was in the corner for the six round fight on the Goodwin Promotions ‘Back of the Net’ bill as Lovell said: “Dan was definitely my toughest opponent yet on the professional level.

“He is well known for his toughness as well as his brother Nick who has also won British titles.

“There was a high pace for the six rounds which has given me a lot of confidence in my fitness to be able to handle longer round fights.

“He caught me with some hard shots early on, but as the fight went on I found my rhythm. I was able to move out the way of his big right hands and pick my shots accurately for the rest of the fight.”

It’s been a good year for Lovell, with points wins over Gabor Balogh, Liam Griffiths, James Conroy and now Blackwell on his record since March.

On his hopes for the next 12 months, Lovell has targeted a future title fight, as he added: “My plans for next year are to hopefully get back in the ring around March time.

“I want to continue to fight tougher opponents and hopefully fight for a Southern area title later on in 2017.”