Haydon Bridge-based Muay Thai boxers Joe and Finn Welch extended their unbeaten records on the recent Victory Promotions bill at the Vertu Arena in Newcastle.

In the main event of the evening, Joe defeated Portugal's Lucas Da Silva via a unanimous decision over five rounds to successfully defend his WBC Muay Thai Middleweight title for the first time.

Da Silva stepped up to fight for the belt at short notice, but proved to be a worthy challenger for the Northern Kings Gym representative.

Both men took their time to get the measure of each other in the first round but still landed some thudding kicks that left their mark. 

Welch stepped up a gear in the second round, looking more and more dangerous as he let his hands go and found a home for his elbows in close range. 

He had to absorb more heavy right-footed kicks from Da Silva, but matched them with inside low kicks to his opponent's front leg.

As the fight progressed to the championship rounds, Da Silva never stopped giving Welch problems to solve but the local hero started to find an answer to those dangerous right kicks and continued to score crucial points with vicious boxing combinations.

Welch's younger brother Finn made his professional debut against Brooke Sowerby, a more experienced boxer with more than 60 fights in his locker. After cutting his opponent's head with an elbow in the second round, Finn claimed a memorable win after the fight was stopped on the instructions of the doctors in Sowerby's corner.