A NEW kickboxing champion has been crowned at the country’s biggest kickboxing show.

Taylor Rogers, from Braintree, was crowned the International Sport Karate Association champion in his category.

After only three years of training and a fight against a previous world champion, Taylor fought his way to victory over world champion Jack Binns at the Victory Kickboxing Series.

Taylor said: I worked extremely hard on this fight with months of training and conditioning.

"The lengthy training paid off and I was beyond happy and proud of the result.

The event was held at Breckland Leisure Centre and attracted many guests.

The 16-year-old has worked his way up the ranks, competing in light contact tournaments

"I owe a lot to my coach Graeme, who prepared me mentally through encouragement and gave me advice throughout the whole process which made the difference between a win and a loss.

"I am especially grateful for his help since he had to spend time away from his family, particularly his newborn son, it was a huge sacrifice to make in order to help me achieve what I wanted."

Taylor's performances have been awarded ‘fight of the night’ status on multiple occasions.

His coaches then decided to move him into full contact fights, putting him in contention for the title fight.

He certainly rose to the challenge and amazed everyone.

Graeme Muskett, from Braintree Kickboxing Academy, said his confidence is growing.

He said: “As a club we couldn’t be prouder.

“The transformation in him, not just in skill, but in confidence and how polite and how much of a good kid he is, is really rewarding to see as a coach.

“He is a great kid who is always helping out with the kid’s classes, as he himself came through the kids programme.”