By Elliot Foster

Bradley Saunders put his injury nightmare behind him to get back to winning ways on Friday.

The 31-year-old looked as good as ever, despite nearly two years out, as he stopped Casey Blair inside a round at the Walker Activity Dome in Newcastle.

Saunders was disqualified in his last fight back in September 2015, but after undergoing operations on career-threatening injuries to both hands, he broke through Blair’s defence to send him reeling backwards, stunned by a right hand in the closing seconds of the opener.

The former Olympian then swarmed his opponent with straight lefts and rights before referee Steve Hawkins called of the scheduled six-round contest with 17 seconds left on the clock.

He is now 13-1 with 10 early, with the only blemish on his ledger being the aforementioned disqualification against Renald Garrido at the Olympia in Liverpool.

“I felt brilliant. I am back,” he enthused. “I get married on August 18 so I plan to get the wedding out of the way and then move on in the gym and go in hard.”

Saunders is trained now, following his ring hiatus, by Peter Sims in Essex and is benefitting from sparring with Ohara Davies and Conor Benn among others.

“I’ve both hands done and people don’t realise what I’ve been through,” he continued. “Others would have retired from my injuries but I didn’t want to get to my Dad’s age and wished I had given it another go.

“I’ve had bone taken from my hips and placed in my hands, they’ll never look normal again.”

Meanwhile, on the same card, Jordan King, Darren Reay and Jamie Humble all scored points wins, there was a draw between Kris Pilkington and Michael Mooney, while Kyle Redfearn knocked out debutant Martin Orsuliak inside two rounds.

Stuart Hall returned to the title picture with a points win, Simon Vallily outpointed Blaise Mendouo and Warren Baister scored a stoppage victory over Imantas Davidaitis.