Olympic gold medalist Audley Harrison may not have impressed during his appearance in Newcastle last weekend - but one Darlington fighter certainly did.

Michael 'Oscar' Hall was on the undercard at the Telewest Newcastle Arena where he secured the Northern Area light welterweight title.

Having controlled the bout from the beginning against South Shields' Dean Nicholas, Hall's opponent was disqualified in the ninth round for use of the elbow.

Darlington ABC's Lol Degnan coached Hall from the age of 11 until he turned professional two years ago, and he was a proud man as he his old protg chalked-up his 17th win from 18 bouts. Hall's other bout was drawn.

"He was in control all the of the time," said Degnan.

"I thought he boxed really well, really tidy and I was very pleased with him."

Hall, who usually fights out of the region as he's based at Brendan Ingle's Sheffield camp, was backed by hundreds of fans as five coaches made the trip to Tyneside and he hopes have more bouts in the North-East soon.

Also on the bill was Northern super middleweight champion Ian Cooper from Hartlepool.

He beat Walsall's Jason Collins on points to land the British Masters middleweight crown.

Cooper had to dig deep to overcome his tough opponent.

Also on the bill was Spennymoor's light heavyweight Micky Thompson who stopped Gary Thompson in the third round.