Junior Witter blasted back on the big-time boxing stage – with a ploy he came up with in the changing room.

Bradford’s former world light-welterweight champion needed just over a minute of the third round to destroy Argentinian Victor Castro in his comeback fight at York Hall.

Witter decked his opponent twice, setting up the quick-fire win with a thudding hook to the body at the end of the previous round.

It was a tactic that he had planned with trainer Dominic Ingle just minutes before stepping into the ring.

Witter said: “We were working on it in the changing room. We’d seen Castro on video and just decided that the best way was to back him up and then that shot would work well on either side.

“He was a tough fighter with a very good guard. Usually against someone like that, you can break through it but we had to look at getting him on the back foot.

“It felt great to get back in the groove like that. This is what Junior Witter’s all about and this is where I want to be.”

The mental demons were blown away in the instant that Witter’s left hook crashed into the rib cage. Six months on from that dreadful Nottingham night when American Tim Bradley snatched his title away, Witter was back to doing what he does best.

Fittingly, his father Walter – looking really good after his cancer scare – was by the ring to see it and leapt to his feet with arms aloft and a grin that lit up east London.

Everything was back in place to convince Witter that normal service will soon be resumed.

He said: “The pace, the accuracy, the power, it was all there. I was back performing again as I should be.

“There have been a lot of negatives about me since losing to Bradley. People say that I’m 34 and washed up now but that was just one blip and I’m over it.

“When I was 25, Brendan Ingle used to tell me I could fight until I was 40 and I’d just laugh at him. Who’d want to still be boxing at 40?

“But that’s only six years away now and actually I do want to keep fighting. I’ve taken no punishment in my career; I’m a giver of punishment.

“I’m confident that I’ve still got the ability and desire and there’s years left in me.”

Castro was game enough but offered little offence against the barrage coming the other way. Survival was his only game after that hook drained him of any energy.

He limped through to the third but a quick end was inevitable. Another left hook to the head and he was down again with no chance of recovering.

Confidence restored, Witter is now eyeing a more meaningful outing early in the new year.

Purse bids are going out for a shot at European champion Gianluca Branco but promoter Mick Hennessy is also pursuing WBA champion Andreas Kotelnik, who Witter outpointed three years ago, as well as Bradley.

Paulie Malignaggi is also on the radar if he can beat Ricky Hatton in a fortnight – but WBC champ Bradley is the one Witter really wants to settle the score.

Hennessy promised: “We are prepared to go to America to beat him. The message to Bradley is that Junior will fight you any time, any place, anywhere.”