Rendall Munroe put a smile back on the face of Leicester City fans with a whirlwind win in his comeback fight.
The Foxes suffered last-gasp play-off heartbreak against Watford and Munroe raced from the pub where he watched the match with his pals to realunch his boxing career with a one-round wipe-out of Laszlo Fekete.
Munroe won Commonwealth and European titles and battled for world honours at super-bantamweight and scaled 9st 7lbs 6ozs – the heaviest he’s been since his professional debut in September, 2003 – for the six-round fight at Club Republic.
Fekete had a puncher’s record – five off his six wins were by knock-out – but ‘The Boxing Binman’ was too big, too strong and hit too hard.
He walked Fekete down, then blasted the Hungarian to his knees with a left-right-left.
Fekete beat the count, but referee Rob Chalmers waved the fight after just 101 seconds.
Munroe says he will now campaign at either featherweight or super-featherweight and added: “I felt great in there. Everyone said I was strong before – and I’m even stronger now.
“My biggest fight was with the scales and stepping up in weight was definitely over due.
“I retired because I was disappointed with the lack of opportunities I was getting.
“But I’m back and now it’s all about having fun again.”
Munroe attracted a sell-out crowd to the city-centre nightclub and could be back in action there in October.
“I leave who I’m fighting down to my management,” he said, “but there’s no reason why I can’t bring a world title back to Leicester.”
Munroe reckons Louis ‘2 Sweet’ Norman is the next star from the Shinfields ‘ stable and the unbeaten British Masters flyweight champion made it five straight wins with a first-round stoppage of Peter Mellor.
Norman kept his cool when he came under fire from the Hungarian in the opening seconds, then sickened him with body shots and forced the stoppage in the first round.
Trainer Jason Shinfield said: “Skill wise, Louis is streets ahead of where Rendall was after five fights.”
