A Central College Nottingham (CCN) sport student battled his way to victory in two gruelling mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts to be crowned amateur world champion in the sport.

Sam Clark, aged 19, who studies a BTec extended diploma in sport, travelled to Portamao in Portugal for the international sporting kickboxing association world championships after winning the British national title last November in Birmingham.

Sam competed in the under 70kg category and won two fights to take home the title.

In the first, Sam won by executing a choke-out in one minute and 20 seconds of the first round and then, in the second fight, by virtue of an arm lock that forced his opponent into submission after one minute and 40 seconds, again in the first round.

Sam said: “I am delighted and thrilled to have won the world title, it’s not quite sunk in yet. I’m going to keep training hard with my MMA and ultimately the dream is to try and go semi-professional within the sport.”

Main pic: New amateur world champion in mixed martial arts Sam Clark, from Central College Nottingham