Young Shakeeb Ali got the perfect birthday present after winning his first ever contest.

The novice boxer, who had lost his two previous bouts, celebrated turning 12-years-old with an unanimous points decision win over Bolton Boys Club's John Crawley.

Shakeeb was the pick of the five Audley Amateur Boxing Club fighters on show in the first ever fight night held at Darwen Leisure Centre.

A total of 12 bouts were held at the venue which attracted fighters from clubs from across the North West and as far as Spennymoor ABC in County Durham.

The event was the brainchild of Yacoob Hussain, founder of Audley ABC, who was delighted with the fights and the turnout.

He said: "With this being the first event we had held in Darwen, I was too sure how well it would be received. But I was delighted to see so many people turn up to cheer on their local fighters.

"Darwen is a very good venue and all of the officials were impressed. Hopefully, we can now make it an annual event."

Shakeeb's older brother Asraar Ali, 13, was unlucky not to make it a winning family affair after he narrowly lost on points to JD Young of Bury.

Lightweight Mohammed Sirtaj from Clitheroe had an impressive debut but the 26-year-old lost his first ever fight against Mo Ajmal of White Rose Boxing Club after judges voted two-to-one against the Audley boxer.

Light welterweight, Theo Redmond was another boxer who narrowly missed out when the 17-year-old was on the wrong end of a split decision against R Mansell from Bolton.

However, Asim Khan made sure Audley finished on a winning note when the 20-year-old beat J Dunn of Heywood in another points decision. The flyweight has now won two of his five fights.

Audley Amateur Boxing Club is based at Audley Community Centre and was formed just over a year ago.

Yacoob is now preparing his fighters for a top European competition later this month. For five members of the Audley club will fly out to Denmark to compete in the prestigious Hancock Box Cup.