Cumbernauld boxer Andy Tham wins first professional fight

The 23-year-old, who trains at the Golden Gloves gym in Kilsyth, stopped Hungarian Istvan Kovacs in the fourth and final round of their lightweight bout in Glasgow last week.

Tham had been due to fight Spaniard Ricardo Hernandez, but had to contend with a last-minute change of opponent.

But neither that nor an unexpected switch to the top of the bill at the St Andrew’s Sporting Club’s Friday Fight Night promotion at the Radisson Blu Hotel could faze him.

He said: “It was a great experience. One of the opponents dropped out for someone so I ended up getting changed to top of the bill

“It was just a case of settling into the slightly longer rounds and work from there and I stopped him in the last round.

“There was a wee bit of nerves but I never really get that nervous so it wasn’t too bad. The atmosphere was great. I felt when I was going out that I needed to put on a good performance but I knew that I would because all the training was done.”

Andy freely admits that his long-term goal is to be world champion.

And among the impressed onlookers was current world title contender Josh Taylor who had words of encouragement for him afterwards.

Andy said: “He said I was looking good and could see I was just settling in and picking my shots.”