MALMESBURY fighter Joe Hughes will box for his first professional title in Bath next month.

Hughes, 23, will contest the International Masters light welterweight crown against Michael Mooney, of Birmingham over ten rounds, on Saturday, April 5 at the City’s Forum venue.

His is one of four major fights on the Bath bill which will also see Hughes' Paddy Johns Gym (Bristol) stablemate Danny Butler making a second defence of the English middleweight belt against Leicester's Martin Concepcion.

Trowbridge middleweight Nick Blackwell will fight for the IBO Inter-Continental title and Norton St Philip’s Mike Rose will also be in title action in an International bronze masters title in the light-middleweight division.

The bill is a collaboration between the Contender Gym in Trowbridge and Paddy Johns Gym in Bristol and Hughes trainer/manager Andy O’Kane said: “This is the first collaboration between the gyms which isn’t a common thing in professional boxing because as you can imagine it’s quite a competitive market.

“We want to co-operate in a way that projects the boxers in the best possible way and gets the West Country recognised again.

"The feedback we had from the Board of Control was that they were thrilled about it.

For ticket details see http://bathforum.ticketline.co.uk or call 01225 765712.