CEFN Fforest super-bantamweight Rob Turley is itching for a crack at the British title after overcoming chickenpox and opponent Paul Economides on Saturday night.

The 24-year-old, who trains with Tony Borg at Newport’s St Joseph’s gym, outpointed Economides, of Connah’s Quay, to win the Welsh title at the Newport Centre.

Turley was delighted to win his first belt after 12 fights as a professional but he nearly didn’t make it to the ring after being laid low by a nasty bout of chickenpox over the Christmas period.

“I didn’t speak about it before the fight because I didn’t want to boost his confidence and sound like I was making excuses for myself but it was pretty bad,” he explained.

“All the way through Christmas and New Year I was plastered in chickenpox and I couldn’t do any training until the first week of January.

“I caught them off my little boy, Jacob, and it was the worst case I’ve ever seen. It knocked me off and really I had to start again,” he added. “I only had four weeks of hard training but I put everything into it. I regularly ran 14 miles from Cefn Fforest to my girlfriend in Brynmawr.”

And the hard work paid off for Turley, who overcame a shaky first few rounds when it looked like he might run out of steam to take charge from round six onwards.

As the fight wore on Turley counter-punched superbly, standing back and picking his shots to maximum effect rather than playing to the galleries, where he had plenty of vocal support.

He eventually won pretty comfortably, with referee Wynford Jones scoring the contest 99 points to 92 in his favour.

“It’s definitely the most exciting win I’ve had. I’m over the moon to have my first belt wrapped around my waist,” he said.

“I’ll go home to show it to my mum, because she’s too scared to come and watch me fight.

“I fought on the back foot, waiting to counter-punch and step back with angles and it was successful.”

Now Turley will look to move on to a British title shot sooner rather than later after revealing that he recently missed out on the chance of a European title fight.

“I need a break,” he added. “Twelve rounds would have been too much for me because of the illness. We had a call-up a few weeks ago to fight Willie Casey for the European title.

“I wanted to do it but I wasn’t fit enough to take it. I wouldn’t have been able to lose the weight in time.

“But I’m in the top 10 after that win so hopefully I’ll be fighting for a British title before too long.”

While there was joy for Turley there was crushing disappointment for his St Joe’s stablemate Matthew Edmonds, who lost his challenge for the vacant British Masters super-bantam belt when he was stopped by Bradford’s Shaun Doherty.

Newport’s Edmonds was ahead going into the 10th and final round but was sent crashing to the canvas three times before referee Roddy Evans stepped in with just over a minute left on the clock.

“It was a tough fight. I think I was doing enough to win it up until the stoppage in the last round,” said the 26-year-old.

“It’s disappointing. I thought I was home and dry but the fight’s not over until the final bell.

“I did my best but the kid was tough. I caught him with some cracking shots but he kept on coming. He caught me on the top of the head in the last round and it scrambled me. I tried to hang on but it’s the worst time to be caught because you’ve got no time to recover.”

Elsewhere on the George & Dragon Promotions bill there was also disappointment for Newbridge’s Darren Pryce, half-brother of Bradley Pryce, who was outpointed by Cardiff’s Kyle King.

Three other St Joseph’s boxers – Justyn Hugh, Frankie Borg and Louie Lee – all had comfortable wins but the star of the undercard was Luke Robinson.

The son of ex-world champion Steve Robinson showed real class on his professional debut to beat Craig Dyer and proved he is one to watch in the years to come.