The 19-year-old from South Shore took the highly-prized Amateur Boxing Association cruiserweight title in amazing style at York Hall, Bethnal Green, beating giant Ricky Newland.

He qualified for the final in a bizarre way - and the trend continued
in last night's gruelling decider at a packed London arena.

Askin had actually been defeated in the ABA quarter-finals, but got an unexpected second chance when the man who beat him pulled out through injury - Askin was re-instated and then duly won his semi-final, having been told to travel back from Blackpool at short notice to the last four venue, Sheffield.

He was having a drink at his local when he got the call on his mobile to get himself back to South Yorkshire pretty sharpish.

The drama continued in a scrappy, but compelling showdown with Londoner Newland, which Askin won by a 9-7 points margin

The 6ft 3in Askin put up a canny fight, constantlly beating his rival to the punch, but made life extremely difficult for himself by conceding no fewer than four points to his opponent as he was twice docked for persistent holding.

Askin, living on a knife-edge, then took a standing-eight count in the final seconds of the last round - but in another strange twist, the judges did not register it as a point for Newland on their scoring machines, despite the fact that the Blackpool teenager had been decked!

However, Askin was a much deserved winner and was so overcome by his triumph that he failed to remove his gum-shield for the BBC-TV ringside interview!

He said: "It's brilliant - I won this for myself and my family, even though I shouldn't really have been here."

Another Blackpool boxer, England international Karl Kirkham lost a classic middleweight final to reigning title holder, hard-hitting Londoner George Groves, in one of the night's outstanding contests - the valiant Kirkham lost nothing in defeat, pushing his classy rival right to the final bell.