TRAINER Richard Farnan believes that Ben Heap can bounce back from his debut defeat.

The former kickboxing champion from Chippenham finally get to make his professional boxing debut last weekend.

After months of red tape over the granting of his licence, the 25-year-old middleweight face Wolverhampton-based Latvian Viktors Drizlionoks.

However, Heap fell to 39-37 defeat at the Grange Drive Leisure Centre in Swindon.

“Ben and I need to sit down,” Farnan said. “Ben is very fit but he needs to be doing boxing-specific training when he is not with me.

“You could see, after the second round, he was spent and had very few ideas.

“I know that it is difficult for him because he is not based in Swindon and has a young family.

“He will bounce back but we need to be stricter on his training.”

Against Drizlionoks, who came into the fight with five defeats and one win, Farnan felt Heap should have more than enough to claim the win.

“Make no mistake Ben faced a tough kid that was game,” the trainer added.

“But he can come back and start winning, we just need to focus on what we are doing.

“I think that this will have been a shock for him and a steep learning curve.”

Heap’s fight was the first on the show which saw Swindon-based 2002 Commonwealth Games javelin bronze medallist Kelly Morgan stunned the Women’s International Boxing Association world number two middleweight Szilvia Szabados in just her third professional outing.