It was a day to remember for Newport’s AJ’s Kickboxing Academy when a selected team of nine returned from the BLCC in Birmingham with seven victories, much to the delight of head coach Chris Morgan, writes Jason Batty.

The BLCC offers a platform for competitive but light-contact contests with around 70 fights on the day.

Former Commonwealth champion Morgan said: “It was the first show since covid, and it couldn’t have gone much better.

“One of the lads fought twice to help with matchmaking and unfortunately lost his second one, which was a bit gutting because we would have had a clean sheet but it was a great experience for him and the rest of the team overall.”

It was their first taste of a competition for all but one of the team, which ranged in age from nine to 26.

The club had 50 members two years ago but is now closing in on 200 with six fully-qualified black belts as coaches.