Ben Mulligan has claimed the WBN World Lightweight title after a third round stoppage of Thomas Murray.

The Fivemiletown fighter was boxing for the belt in Belfast on Saturday, and after bringing his opponent to the floor with a body shot, Ben followed up with more punishing blows that forced the referee to intervene and bring the fight to a premature end in round three of a scheduled ten.

“It was unbelievable,” he admitted. “I put him down with a body shot and then he got back up and I put the pressure back on and caught him with another combination and the referee stopped it. It will take a wee bit of time for all of it to sink in.”

Ben was pleased with his preparations for the fight and was confident before stepping into the ring, but he knew he would have to produce his best to claim the title.

“I had made the weight well but I was thinking he might have been too sharp on his feet for me. I knew I was going to have to wear him down. I knew he was really good on his feet and we had a game plan for that.”

The nimble footed Murray did prove elusive in the early stages of the contest, but Ben had seen enough in the opening round to give himself belief that he emerge victorious.

“He was cocky but I knew I had caught him with a great body shot in the first round and I could hear him. I knew I would get him as the rounds went on,” he revealed.

“In the first two rounds I was panicking a bit because I wasn’t landing any clean shots and he was hitting and running. He would have been outpointing me if he kept that up the whole fight because I wasn’t fit to land anything on him. I was going back to the corner and Gary was telling me to keep doing what I was doing and you will get him because he will slow down at some stage. I just didn’t think it would be that soon into the fight.”

Ben’s win was the culmination of a remarkable four year period that had seen him recover from skin cancer to become world champion.

An operation in 2016 threatened to bring an end to his boxing career, but Ben’s determination saw him rise from the operating table to claim a Celtic title and he has not looked back since.

“That Celtic title I won was the best feeling ever having been out for so long,” he recalled. “I had been out for two years and to come back and beat a Belfast boy was the best feeling in the world.

“I was with one of the biggest promoters out there and I used to think why would they waste their time with me, but he said he knew I would blast off. Gary Parkinson has been with me since I was ten and he always said that I just needed a break.”

Ben made the most of his opportunity and now has the belts to show for it, but he has a desire to go out at the top and he reckons he has had his last competitive fight.

“There could not be a better way of going out,” he said. “Training camps are getting harder and it’s a dangerous sport to be in too long. All the sparring on a daily basis is not good for you. I have been in with some of the best in the world with the likes of Amir Khan, and I never really passed much remarks on it but it does take its toll on you.”

Even though he may never fight for another belt again, Ben has no intention of turning his back on the sport that has given him so many highs.

“I am going to chill out for a wee bit and then I’m going to see if I can put up my own gym,” he revealed. “I’ll try to look for premises around Fivemiletown. It will be opened as a boxing club and I will do other classes. The stuff I know from training is unbelievable having been around other places. I have been in some of the best gyms in the world and around some of the best trainers in the world and it has rubbed off.

“It’s only when you get a bit older you start to realise that, and coming off a world title there couldn’t be a better time to open up a gym.”