Walsham-le-Willows fighter Leon Dunnett battles through injury to land ISKA light-heavyweight world kickboxing title

Leon Dunnett admitted becoming the unified light-heavyweight kickboxing world champion is the ‘biggest achievement’ of his career after he could ‘barely move’ his shoulder before the fight that saw him claim the accolade.

The athlete from Walsham-le-Willows defeated German number one Paul Käestner by unanimous decision on July 6 to clinch the ISKA light-heavyweight world kickboxing title.

This saw the Combat Kickboxing Academy, in Thurston, near Bury St Edmunds, fighter ‘unify the divisions’ – win every world title fight possible for his weight – and this was a target he set himself following his British, European and World title wins since his return to the sport after a five-year hiatus.

But perhaps the most extraordinary part of Dunnett’s achievement was how he tasted victory in Birmingham with a shoulder injury that started a week and a half before his fight.

“My physio said ‘I don’t think you should fight’,” the 26-year-old said.

“I could barely move my shoulder going into the fight so it meant I couldn’t really throw a straight right hand or I couldn’t twist my arm.

“We had to alter things slightly because I couldn’t extend my right hand.

“It meant I had to completely change my style and fight up tight and close to the German.

“It effected things and meant I took a bit more punishment than I usually do.

“The promoter came out to do an interview with me on the week leading up to the fight and he said ‘can you do some pad work for a video?’. And I said ‘I physically can’t throw a punch at the minute’.

“He said ‘you better not pull out’, I said ‘I’ll honestly fight with one hand if I have to, I’m not going to pull out, trust me’.”

The ‘touch-and-go’ nature of his injury distracted from the fact his opponent was changed three weeks prior to the event, as he was scheduled to fight Jeremy Allonge but the German slipped to third in their national rankings, and Dunnett had to fight the number one.

Despite his injury, Dunnett held is own and landed strong punches in a contest that left little to separate the two fighters.

His victory by unanimous decision was streamed worldwide on Leapfrog Fight TV and Dunnett was pleased to see kickboxing get the ‘exposure it deserves’ – which also came with pre-and-post-fight interviews and big screens in the venue displaying his walkout.

“To finally have achieved what I set out from the start I’m really proud of, it’s definitely my biggest (achievement),” he said.

“I set out on a journey to make a comeback, reach the top and be unified champion of the world. Sitting 18 stone at the time, the dream felt impossible. Losing five stone was the first challenge, the next was the British Championships and so on and so on. One step at a time and taking each challenge as it came.”