BRAD HALFORD proved he was a step above fellow title challenger Shaun Walton recently by claiming the vacant Queensbury Boxing League Southern Area Light Welterweight title in swashbuckling style.
The popular 32-year-old from Dorking produced the performance of his career in front of his army of fans at the Epsom Downs racecourse, outclassing the veteran Walton over five pulsating rounds to earn a unanimous points decision.
It has been an absolutely meteoric rise to stardom for Halford after only entering the competition last September and training since that time.
He can now look forward to even bigger fights after impressing the show's promoters with his exciting and crowd-pleasing all-action style.
"I really enjoyed that fight," he said.
" I stepped up my game in there on the night and proved myself against a former British title challenger."
"I don't want to sound big-headed in any way as I have a lot of respect for Walton as a fighter, but he really did not surprise me with anything in the fight.
"I felt I handled him really well, including getting the knockdown in the third round."
Halford says there is still room for improvement, though, and the Dorking man is setting himself some big targets for the next few years as he looks to announce himself on the big stage of the boxing game.
He said: "There are still things I need to work on and still improvements to be made in my game.
"But now I want to push forward and look at getting the big fights for the big titles and stay undefeated in the league."
The mastermind behind Halford's impressive display was Mark Houlden, who runs the Ultimate Fitness gym in Leatherhead.
He said he was over the moon with his charge's performance.
He was looking forward to seeing the fight at the end of March when it goes out on prominent TV sports channel British Eurosport.
