Thomas Essomba stops Louis Norman in Leicester to become English champion

Sunderland’s Thomas Essomba is England’s new bantamweight champion after a stunning victory in Leicester over Louis Norman.

The 30-year-old has brought the vacant belt back to Wearside after stopping the hometown man and favourite in the sixth round on Friday night.

If Essomba was to triumph at the King Power Stadium, punch-lines predicted he would have to be decisive in his work.

And the two-time Olympian was just that as he inflicted the first stoppage defeat on the Shepshed boxer.

Essomba, who settled in Sunderland in 2012 after quitting the Cameroon team, is now in pole position to go on to fight for the British title and, hopefully, beyond.

Thomas has always been adept at the body shot as he proved when dismantling Waleed Din in 2015 to become the Commonwealth flyweight champion.

And the Paul O’Malley-trained repeated the trick last night on the Carl Greaves promotion.

Having hurt Norman early in the bout, which was scheduled for 10 rounds, Essomba kept up the pressure and delivered the key body shot in round six which Louis could not recover from.

Norman took to Twitter to apologise to his supporters.

“I’m so sorry people, got stopped with a body shot 6th round,” he wrote on his account,  L_2SWEET_N.

“Caught with it a couple of times early in the fight; and that body shot was the one that finished it couldn’t catch my breath.

“Got to have a sit down with the team, and see what’s next, obviously not at that level.”

For Essomba, his career is back on the up following the loss of his Commonwealth title 12 months ago.

Thomas and boss Phil Jeffries parted company last year with the London 2012 boxer now under the management of Kieran Farrell.

Words: Roy Kelly