KIDDERMINSTER'S Connor Porter won the International Combat Association English Welterweight kickboxing title after an impressive win over Nathan Smith in Ipswich.

The 19-year-old started the fight with lots of movement before launching blistering combinations.

Smith, undefeated and with big crowd support from his Hastings, Essex, base, tried with some success to utilise his counter left hook in the first two rounds, which prompted Porter to change game plan and keep the fight at long range from round three onwards.

In the fourth and fifth rounds, Porter upped the tempo and made his opponent wince and back pedal with a barrage of body shots.

During the last 30 seconds of the fifth round, the Wyre Forest fighter went on the all out attack and had the referee watching closely, ready to stop the contest. The bell, however, sounded and Smith was able to get to the end, but all three judges voted for Porter by unanimous decision.

Porter now holds two of the five amateur English belts, and is attempting on a mission to collect all of them all.

His ring record is now an impressive 15 wins against 3 losses and a draw, and he has won his last five bouts going back to 2013 when he lost in the Junior World Championship finals, and his coach, Matt Winsper of Winspers Martial Arts Centre, says of his protege: “Connor is a great ambassador for the sport locally and nationally. He works hard, is extremely dedicated, and spends all of his spare time coaching youngsters in the gym, which keeps him grounded and level headed.”

Anyone needing any more information on Winspers Martial Arts Centre should visit www.winsperskickboxing.com