Tom Podmore is the Correspondent for the Midlands and believes that there are exciting times ahead – particularly in Birmingham and the Black Country.

Tom caught the boxing bug from an early age and used to love to watch the great era of British middleweights in the early 90s.

He really started to take notice of boxing when he saw Nigel Benn-Chris Eubank II, aged eight.

Ever since he has been hooked.

His all-time favourite British fighters are Pat Cowdell, Naseem Hamed and Michael Brodie. Mike Tyson, Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Leonard are amongst his overseas heroes.

"I’m keen to do as much as I can to raise the profile of boxing in the West Midlands on BBN. I also want to help the already excellent website go from strength-to-strength.

"Midlands boxing has been a little quiet over recent years but with the likes of Carl Froch and Wayne Elcock holding the British title, Darren McDermott, Matthew Macklin, Stuart Elwell, Rendall Munroe and Marcus Portman closing in on British title fights in the next year, the future is bright.

"We also have some talented youngsters coming though in the area – the likes of Dean Harrison, Thomas Costello, Dougie Walton and Don Broadhurst in the pros and Frankie Gavin and Khalid Saeed-Yafai in the amateur code - which should leave the area healthy.

"The future is looking very bright."

He hopes the truly big fight-nights can return to Birmingham in the next few years – like in the mid-90s at the NEC and NIA.

Tom is finally going to university next year (after taking a couple of years out) to study Journalism and hopes that his new skills will bolster the already excellent reputation of the site.