BRADFORD'S Darren Tetley has dedicated his WBO European welterweight belt to his late grandad Ernie.

The 24-year-old came through an almighty battle to beat Mason Cartwright with a ninth-round stoppage at Elland Road on Saturday.

The fight was just a day after his grandad's funeral which he attended before the weigh-in.

And the emotion poured out of Tetley after the bruising contest as he produced a fitting tribute to his greatest fan.

Tetley said: "It's my first fight as a pro that my grandad hasn't been to, and with the funeral being the day before the fight, there was a lot of emotion.

"But I had to put it to the back of my head. I told everyone I was going to win that belt for him and I did."

Tetley was still struggling to come to terms with the victory, which came when he was awarded a technical knockout after splitting his opponent's lip open.

It completed a fantastic comeback from the Holme Wood boxer, who had been behind on points.

He admitted: "It hasn't sunk in yet. It feels like I'm in a dream still and I'm just waiting to wake up."

He was relieved to recover from a slow start but he revealed that he was hoping to finish Cartwright off late on, saying: "I didn't start off as well as I wanted to.

"But my gameplan was to get it to the later rounds and stop him then. I didn't want the start that I did have and I think going into the ninth round, I was one round down.

"I needed to win those last two rounds to win the fight but I was fully confident I was going to do that, regardless of the stoppage."

Tetley was performing on the undercard of the Josh Warrington-Lee Selby IBF featherweight world title clash and he fought his opponent wearing shorts emblazoned with the word "grandad" on them.

It proved to be an exciting scrap between two unbeaten stylists, with Ellsmere Port's Cartwright looking the stronger in the first half of the ten-round contest.

After a relatively slow start, southpaw Tetley grew as the fight went on and he knocked Cartwright over in the eighth round as the tide started to turn in his favour.

Cartwright claimed he had slipped but he was clearly rocking and the end came in the ninth round after the doctor was summoned to offer his advice on the serious cuts to his lips as blood dripped from him.

The fight was stopped and Tetley was declared the winner by technical knockout.

It was a career best performance from the Bradford ace, who is now 16-0 as a professional.

The title is the first professional one of his career and promoter Frank Warren will now look at securing a British title eliminator in his next fight – but a rematch with Cartwright further down the line is a distinct possibility.

A fight with current English champion John O'Donnell has also been mooted for later this year.

It is Bradford City fan Tetley’s dream to fight for a British title at his beloved Valley Parade and that is a distinct possibility if he keeps progressing at this rate.

On the prospect of boxing at City's stadium, he said: "Maybe in the next two years it could happen.

"At the minute, I'm maybe not well known enough, although I suppose I am a bit more after Saturday night. But we'd still need to sell about 20,000 tickets.

"If you'd asked me about fighting at Valley Parade a year ago, I'd have said it would just be a dream. But I believe with another two or three more wins like Saturday night, with exciting performances, that dream is a little bit closer to being able to become a reality."