BRITISH lightweight title contender Gavin Gwynne is intent on keeping a promise to two-year-old son Arlo by bringing home the Lonsdale Belt this spring.

Tony Borg-trained Gwynne faces Northern Ireland stoppage specialist James Tennyson for the vacant strap at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena on May 9.

It will be Gwynne’s second shot at the British crown after a points defeat to fellow Welshman, and then champion, Joe Cordina in London last August.

That loss was the first of 29-year-old Gwynne’s professional career, after which he extended his winning record to 12-1 thanks to a first-round TKO of Cameroonian Abdon Cesar.

Losing to former St Joseph’s stablemate Cordina was obviously a big blow to Gwynne’s hopes of adding to the Welsh title he picked up in December 2017.

But it was made that little bit more disappointing for Newport-based Gwynne as the Trelewis native had promised his son he would bring back the Lonsdale Belt from The O2.

Fighting Tennyson (26-3) in May – the staging of the Matchroom show could yet be affected by the coronavirus outbreak – gives Gwynne another opportunity to fulfil that promise.

“He’s brilliant,” said Gwynne. “He’s growing up now. He’s coming up to three. It’s great having kids, I love it, and hopefully I can bring home a belt for him on May 9.

“That’s what broke my heart the most after losing to Joe last year. I’d made a promise that I was going to bring the belt back.

“I like to keep my promises to him, so I’m going to make sure of it this time.

“That’s a little extra incentive for me to go out and win it.

“He’s three in June so hopefully we can celebrate a win in May and then celebrate his birthday.”

He added: “I don’t think he realises what I do. I’ve taken him to the gym, but he didn’t really know what was going on. He’s still young.

“I was in the ring with Tony working on the pads and he thought Tony was hurting me. He was crying because he wanted to get in the ring.”

Gwynne impressed in his defeat to Cordina and he was confident another chance to go for the British strap would come around.

“The experience of fighting on a big show was one of the positives I took from it,” he said. “I also learnt a lot about what I needed to work on in the gym.

“My stock rose when I put on a performance like I did against Joe, only losing by a couple of rounds in a close fight.

“I knew the opportunity was going to come around again, I just had to get back to winning ways first.

“I did that in my last fight. It was supposed to be a tough fight to give me rounds.

“I was nervous going into it because it was on the back of a loss, and it was against a decent opponent who had beaten a Southern Area champion a couple of weeks earlier.

“But I went in there and got him out inside the first round.”

On Tennyson, he continued: “We were supposed to fight for this title on a show the other week, but Tennyson was ill, and you’ve got to be 100% going into these fights.

“It has worked out better for me because it’s now in my hometown which will give me that little bit of an advantage with the people watching.

“My game plan is to outbox him, not just take him as many rounds as I can.

“I’m a come forward fighter because the other guys are shorter than me, but he comes forward so I can use my boxing ability.

“It’s going to be a fantastic fight. We’re both go-forward fighters who don’t like taking a backward step.

“He’s coming into my back yard and I’m not going to let him beat me in front of my own fans.”