‘Winning this means everything’ – Waterlooville boxer Mark Chamberlain claims first professional title at Wembley Arena

The ferocious Waterlooville lightweight – whose nickname is ‘Thunder’ – lifted the vacant IBF European belt with a unanimous points victory over Spaniard Marc Vidal on the Joy Joyce undercard.

The former plasterer dominated his opponent throughout the 10 rounds, after catching him with a superb right hook in the opening round.

Though Chamberlain remained in the ascendency throughout - in front of around 250 of his own supporters - Vidal maintained his record of having never been stopped in his pro career.

Since turning pro in 2018, the 23-year-old Chamberlain - part of promoter Frank Warren’s stable of fighters - has now racked up 11 straight wins and no losses. Seven of those victories have arrived inside the distance.

‘I’ve watched it (the fight) back over a couple of times and I thought it went great, I feel great - on top of the world,’ he told The News.

‘It was definitely the best performance of my career. It’s a major achievement for me.

‘The (pre-fight) plan was pretty much what happened. I just took each round as it came and went from there.

‘I did catch him (Vidal) early on in the first round but I didn’t want to get too excited and blow myself up.’

As a result of his Wembley win, Chamberlain - ranked No 4 in Britain - now has a top 15 IBF world ranking.

He hopes to defend his title in this country before Christmas, but no possible opponents or dates are yet known.

‘The hope(when he turned professional) was to become a world champion, and that’s still the aim,’ he added. ‘I’ve now got a top 15 world ranking, so winning that title was everything to me.’

Victory over Vidal was Chamberlain’s second win at Wembley Arena this year. Previously, he had stopped Jeff Ofori for only the second time in his 16-fight pro career in March, forcing his opponent into a fifth round retirement.

That came weeks after Chamberlain quit his plastering job to focus solely on his boxing career.