Josh Holmes targeting English title after stablemate Charlie Schofield brought home the belt!

The 26-year-old’s stablemate collected the belt on Fightzone’s show in June, avenging his earlier defeat against Mickey Ellison.

The Phoenix Camp champion scored a unanimous decision victory at the Sheffield Arena, before taking his prized strap into Rob Rimmer’s facility in Denton.

Now Holmes, of Earby, harbours dreams of landing his own version, which is currently vacant in the 130lb division.

“I’d like to think I’ll be the English champion at some point next year,” he said. “We’ll see what Dennis Hobson and Fightzone come up with, but I’ll be ready to go no matter what.

“Charlie Schofield has got the English belt at super-middleweight. He brought it into the gym to show us. It just made me even more determined to get my hands on one of my own.

“Myself and Rob believe we’re at that level now, but we’ve got to continue taking small steps. My manager, Kevin Maree, wants me to get more experience before going for something like that, but we know what I’m capable of.”

The former Eastburn ABC supremo’s stock continues to rise. A facile victory over Michael Horabin won’t have affected his reputation on the exchange too significantly, but he did what was necessary.

The last-minute change — which saw the Cheshire-based journeyman step in for Jonny Phillips — wasn’t what Holmes had wanted, with a capacity crowd at Colne Muni anticipating a competitive headline bout.

Holmes said: “It was disappointing really because I was topping the bill and I didn’t really break a sweat. You want the headlining fight to be the best one, or at least for it to be competitive, and we didn’t get that.

“I didn’t want to let people down after they’d bought tickets but they didn’t get the show they deserved. We found out at the weigh-in, the day before the fight, so it felt quite deflating because I’ve put a lot into this camp.

“I was expecting a good test, my toughest one yet, but it fell through. But it happens a lot in boxing, it probably won’t be the last time, so we’ve just got to get on with it.”

Holmes is heading towards double figures without so much as a hiccup. The ex-Yorkshire ABA champion, who collected win number eight on the pro circuit, appreciates that a perfect 10 will open up more windows of opportunity for him: “I’ve got the chance to end the year on 10-0, which would be great. I would love to achieve that because it sets me up for a big 2022.”