Leighton Buzzard hardman Harry Matthews reached a new high on Saturday night when he lit up an evening of professional boxing at stadium:mk in Milton Keynes.

The 22-year-old, nicknamed The Rocket for his explosive nature in the ring, made it nine wins from as many fights by beating his rival Terry Caruthers in emphatic style.

Backed by dozens of supporters from Leighton, Matthews went to work on the Birmingham fighter from the outset in what was easily the most exciting contest of a four-bout show organised by Leighton promoter Steve Goodwin.

Fighting at middleweight and in a bout of six three minute rounds, Matthews made his intentions clear from the off, but it wasn't until an explosive fifth round that the fight really came to life and the young fighter showed a crowd of over 700 exactly what he was made of.

Matthews had Caruthers straight on the back foot and soon had the lanky Brummy on the ropes and wobbling with a series of perfectly co-ordinated and powerful blows as the arena exploded into raptures and the noise was deafening.

After two more big hits right on the bell the referee had no option but to end the contest at the end of the fifth, with Caruthers left in no fit state to continue.

The end of the fight brought wild celebrations from Matthews, who later said that losing was never an option.

He said: "Winning that fight was everything to me. I had 10 weeks of really hard training and personal sacrifice to get me ready for it, but winning makes it all worth while."

Headlining the bill was meant to be the former Commonwealth and British lightweight champ Graham Earl, but after he pulled out of his comeback fight, boxing fans might have felt a little short-changed.

And Matthews admitted that he really felt the pressure, saying: "We knew we had to put a show after it was announced that Graham wasn't fighting, but I thought we did that.

"It was my toughest fight to date but it went just as I'd hoped and to be honest I thought the ref might even have stopped it earlier."

Matthews will now have a couple of weeks out before he looks ahead to his next big fight in London in the summer.

For now though he says he's just looking forward to being able to live a normal life again, but was keen to thank his supporters and Goodwin Promotions for making it 'the night of his life."