Bobby Vanzie retained his British and Common-wealth lightweight titles with a controversial win over Stephen Smith last night and then revealed his anger at the treatment he had received.

The Bradford boxer was subjected to racial and personal abuse from a partisan crowd at the Elephant & Castle Leisure Centre before, during and after his win on a ninth round stoppage.

Vanzie said: "I never want to experience anything like that again. The abuse and all the mental torment really got to me.

"I have never had to be escorted from the ring before. Me and my family were taken out through a side-door just to get us back to my dressing room."

As he sat on a bench with the coveted Lonsdale Belt he now holds outright alongside him, Vanzie added: "I just want to get back to Bradford and away from London. This has been an awful experience - the abuse really got to me. I just want to get back to my children at home."

At that point the champion burst into tears, a clear indication of the pressure he felt on an evening which nearly went disastrously wrong for him.

Cut in the first round, Vanzie had a point deducted for holding in the fourth, and was then close to disqualification after referee Terry O'Connor ruled that he had twice floored Smith with low blows in the eighth.

Those incidents incensed the home crowd and a couple of objects - including a plastic water bottle - were lobbed towards the corner of the ring where Vanzie was being lectured by the referee and stewards had to move in quickly to prevent trouble.

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