Swindon boxing promoter Mark Neilson says staging a world title fight has been his greatest achievement to date in the sport.

Neilson, who is the son of former heavyweight boxer Eddie, arranged a contest between Kaisey Khademi and Jackson Chauke for the vacant IBO flyweight world title at the end of January.

While the contest itself was won by the away fighter, Chauke, Neilson says that he felt the biggest win of the evening was his hosting the show at the iconic York Hall and managing to put together his first world title bout at such a historic venue having started out in his hometown.

“The fight was streamed to tens of thousands of people on Queensbury Boxing’s YouTube channel and then more on the app Telegram,” he said.

“For me, it is the peak of my boxing promotional career so far. An IBO world title, we’ve already done lots of youth titles, Commonwealth titles and continental titles but this one was a bit of a pinch-yourself moment.

“We only branched out to London recently, so to be hosting sold-out events and world titles is an achievement I’m really proud of.

“My dad was a boxer from Swindon, he is really proud. My mum has passed away, but I know she’d be really proud, and we’ve got this family involvement in it now too with my cousin Kyle working alongside me.

“These events started in front of a few hundred people in Stratton and are now going out to thousands of people all over the world.”

After this world title fight marked a significant start to the year, Neilson is looking to push on and have more moments to remember this year and they are set to promote another 11 shows in 2024, with events set to take place in many cities in the UK, including Swindon, Cardiff, and the capital.

The Swindon businessman believes his level of activity and quality of contest put him within the sport’s top promotional outfits operating in the UK.

“You’ve got the big four promoters who most sports fans know, with TV deals and things like that,” he added.

“Then you’ve got a few others and I think we are probably sixth on the list, which isn’t bad for a promoter from Swindon.

“We are looking forward to another busy year where hopefully we can create more champions and continue on our upward trajectory.”