HIS FIGHTER may not have got the result he was after but Contender Gym trainer Mark Kent reckons that Nick Blackwell’s reputation still received a boost from his majority draw with Sergey Khomitsky last weekend.

The Trowbridge man, 24, couldn’t be separated from his Belarusian opponent by the judges’ scorecards as he made his Hennessy Sports debut in Monte Carlo on Saturday night, with Blackwell’s outing in front of the TV cameras failing to pass without its fair share of incident.

The Wiltshire star did finish on the front foot but only after receiving a swift slap from Kent midway through the fight, with the broadcasters picking up the Duke Street trainer telling his fighter to “wake up”.

“It was only when the announcer called it out as a six-round fight that we found out it wasn’t going to be eight and Mick Hennessy was in the ring arguing about it – Nick was left there waiting for a few minutes and he went cold,” said Kent.

“It took him a long time to get going. He did do well at the end and a lot of people though he won the fight. I just wish I’d slapped him earlier.

“He won it on points, so the majority draw isn’t great and he’d hurt Khomitsky. The doctors were following him around afterwards.

“Richie Woodhall and Barry McGuigan were both praising him up on TV and talking about how amazing it was that he had no amateur background, so he got a bit of exposure from it.”