Prizefighter champion Tony Oakey believes is success has shot him back into light-heavyweight title contention.
Now Portsmouth man wants his belts back
Tony Oakey reckons his Prizefighter success has put him back on the title trail.
The Portsmouth light-heavyweight emerged victorious at Bethnal Green, after seeing off Billy Boyle in his first fight and then out-pointing Billy Stubbs in the final.
It landed the former British and Commonwealth champion a cool £25,000 in prize money but more importantly he says, it has re-ignited his career.
"I want to thank Barry Hearn for putting my name forward to come here," he told
Sky Sports.
"It's now opened doors again to fight for one of my old titles. It's brilliant.
"I am very, very proud of what I've achieved and I know the Portsmouth people are proud of me, and this is another thing to go on the CV."
Oakey is now likely to challenge Dean Francis for the British title he lost in June 2008 or a Commonwealth title clash with Nathan Cleverly, who beat him four months later.
The Portsmouth man took the fight at short notice and is hopeful his Prizefighter success will now give him the chance to right a few wrongs.
"It was looking like I was on my way out after the fight with Cleverly," he said. "But I don't want to go into that again - tonight is my night.
"We went back to the drawing board after the Cleverly fight. We knew mistakes were made, we knew we shouldn't have taken the fight, but it was a joint decision and we have bounced back."
Oakey was also quick to pay tribute to runner-up Darren Stubbs.
The Oldham man was a late call into the final following a scoring error in his semi-final with Carl Dilks, but still put up a gutsy display despite losing all three rounds.
"I was a little bit tired from the previous contest but I don't want to take anything away from him - it was a very hard fight," said Oakey.
"I think the hardest parts of the fight were rounds one and two. I thought I'd try and take it easy, but I was willing to go to war and he didn't stop trying did he?"
