BOLTON professional boxer Mark Payne is closing in on a British title fight.
The Belmont 25-year-old super bantamweight took a step nearer to realising his ambition of being the best in Britain when he won his 13th fight out of 14 as a professional on Saturday night.
Payne, who hails from Coventry and has lived in Belmont for the last 12 months to be with his fiancee Elizabeth Ashall and near to his Manchester training base, took his latest opponent apart on the same bill as Audley Harrison at Newcastle.
Around 80 fans travelled to the Telewest Arena, including 40 from the Belmont Bull pub in the village, where they saw him beat Ukraine champion Rakeem Mingleev convincingly on points.
He won every one of the six rounds to set him up for a possible British title eliminator within the next couple of months.
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