City bareknuckle boxer ends his career in a brilliant blood-splattered scrap

‘The Hangar’ in Wolverhampton was packed and millions more around the world saw a show that featured Harley’s return to action. He hadn’t fought for two years and it was the recent passing of sister Shinead that inspired him to throw punches again.

The 38 year-old from Paston said he was determined to win – or have the best fight of the night and Joe Smith-Brown, the co founder of promoters BKB, went further by calling his five-round battle against Jordan Ward ‘the best fight I’ve ever seen.’

Harley was beaten on points over five rounds, but showed tremendous fighting spirit. Down three times, cut and bruised, Harley kept throwing and landing punches until the final bell.

Harley was understandably rusty after being out of action for so long and was dropped in each of the opening two rounds before the father of four started making Ward miss in the third while also landing his own shots.

He bloodied Ward’s mouth and possibly edged the fourth as well to narrow the gap on the scorecards before the final three minutes.

But Ward put the fight beyond Harley in the last with a left hook to the chin that dropped him for a third time even though the local man got up and traded punches with Ward until the final bell.