Ross Cooksey is able to reflect on a return to the ring that couldn’t have gone much better after the featherweight from Barrow put in a superb display to defeat Ricky Leake at Bolton last week.

The 26-year-old extended his professional record to seven fights unbeaten, although he had to wait 11 months to do so after taking a break from competing to start a family with his fiancee.

The bout against Leake was also his first under new trainer Johnney Roye after he signed up with promoters MTK Global earlier in the year and it was one in which he won every one of the four rounds in being given the points decision.

Cooksey looked light on his feet throughout, with his movement preventing his opponent from Kent from laying a serious glove on him while he picked his moments to attack with his right-hand jabs repeatedly landing.

Cooksey said: “It went pretty much perfect and I did what was asked of me and everything that we’ve been working on at the gym pretty much came together.

“Luckily for me, our styles gelled and I was just the better boxer on the night.

“It just seemed to click for me on the night because the camp before the fight was far from perfect - I had a hand injury and there were a couple of other slight niggles and at one point we were even thinking of pulling the fight, but we decided to go for it.

“It was a little bit of a risk, but I just wanted to get back out and with the opponent that we had, we still thought that we’d get the win, which we did.”

After the longest break of his career so far, Cooksey won’t have to wait long until his next fight, with him currently being scheduled to box at the University of Bolton Stadium again in September.

Like his fellow Barrovian Mike McGoldrick, Cooksey is keen on being given a longer fight, while at the same time is looking forward to the tougher challenges that await him as his career progresses.

Cooksey said: “I’d imagine this will possibly be a six-rounder, or even possibly an eight. I actually wanted a six for the last one and I’m not entirely sure why it got dropped to a four - maybe it’s because of the injury that I had.

“I really want to start building now and push forward because I’ve had a bit of a stop-start career. I’d probably accept an eight-rounder if it was offered next time out. I know it’s a bit of a jump, but I want to start pushing on now and try and get some meaningful fights.

“I’d like to have a couple of fights where maybe I’m not the favourite or it being 50-50 because they’re the fights people really want to see.”