New Addington boxing champion Gareth Gardner had to call on every ounce of his experience to successfully defend his Queensbury British middleweight title with a gruelling points win.

Topping the bill on the Queensbury Boxing League’s massive 2012 season finale at the Effingham Park Hotel, the undefeated 28- year-old had promised his army of fans an early Christmas cracker when he faced Northampton’s Nathan Leeson.

And his pre-fight prediction could not have been truer as the pair exchanged heavy leather from the opening seconds of the contest to produce one of the most memorable battles in the history of the Queensbury league.

From the start of the contest Gardner went straight to work pressing forward with the relentless determination that he has become famed for.

However, Leeson, renowned for his slick defensive repertoire, avoided the majority of the incoming bombs and landed his own hurtful looking counters that got the champion’s attention.

With Leeso edging the opener, it was clear Gardner was in for one of his toughest night’s work.

Round two started off where the pair had left off in the previous stanza, and Gardner continued to drive forward working well behind the jab and landing some big overhand rights, but again Leeson’s movement was beginning to frustrate the champion as he avoided getting tagged cleanly.

Again in rounds three and four it was difficult to split the pair as both boxers had their success, and it looked too close to call as they went back to their respective corners at the end of the round.

As the fight moved into the fifth and final round, the outcome looked to be on a knife edge with many at ringside scoring it two rounds apiece, and as the warriors got straight down to work the tension among both sets of fans could be felt around the arena.

As the drama unfolded and the round played out, the champion managed to dig deep and produced a flurry of hurtful looking punches, which ended with a massive right hand that detonated on the challenger’s forehead just seconds before the final bell.

As both challenger and champion waited to hear the judge’s decision, MC Grant Waterman read out the decision declaring Gardner the winner by way of unanimous decision.

Afterwards, Gardner said: “Nathan was easily my toughest fight so far in the league, but although it was a hard fight I really enjoyed it in there tonight.

“I felt my jab was working well and I was hitting him to the body to try and soften him up, but it’s hard to tell how well I did until I actually see the fight back as when you are in there all you are doing is concentrating on your opponent.

“It’s been an amazing year in the league and after five good fights and five good wins I’m going to take some time off now, but I’m already looking forward to 2013 now and seeing who’s next in line.”