A CLITHEROE fighter has won the chance to compete for a 12 month contract with Cage Rage.

Luke Holt, 29, was last night seen beating thousands of other hopefuls to get into the final 16 on Nuts TV’s new reality show Fighting Hurts.

And the dad of three says the contest may be his last chance to turn professional.

Luke, who once trained with UFC’s Michael Bisping, said: “I nearly turned professional a few years ago but, with three children and a mortgage to pay, I couldn’t afford to do.

“It would have meant spending six months without pay. I read about this show in Nuts magazine and saw it as being like a last-chance saloon for me to turn professional.”

In the first episode of Fighting Hurts viewers saw Luke, who was British kickboxing champion from 2000 to 2003, and hundreds of others show off their skills in front of a panel of judges.

Cage Rage co-founder Dave O’Donnell, top heavyweight Neil Grove and referee Grant Waterman assessed the wannabe cage fighters while putting them through rigorous tests. They then selected 16 mixed martial artists to be filmed fighting it out for the contract.

Dave said: “Thousands of people applied and we got that down to 500 for the audition. It was like X Factor eliminations but with them showing their skills on the bags and pads.

“We really put them through it - they went through hell and back - so to get to the final 16 is a great achievement.

“We then took them to different gyms around the country for training and took them to an army-style ‘boot camp’.

“They are all part-time fighters who want to become MMA cage fighters so it was about trying to break them to see who had the heart to carry on.”

Over the coming weeks the 16 will be shown being trained by some of the biggest names in British mixed martial arts in their bid to be crowned Fighting Hurts Champion 2008.

After a series of eliminations, the two finalists will go head-to-head inside the octagon at the Cage Rage Contenders event live on Nuts TV on November 1.

Filming for most the series has been completed but people with have to watch the show to find out how Luke gets on.

Fighting Hurts is shown every Wednesday at 10pm.