Leytonstone’s Philip Bowes said “an active fighter is a dangerous fighter” following the successful defence of his Commonwealth title on Saturday.

Bowes earned the super lightweight crown with a win over Tanzania’s Benson Nyilawila back in February and he comfortably defended the title at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena at the weekend against challenger Tom Farrell.

With such a short space of time between the two fights, it would have been easy to forgive ‘Quicksilver’ for starting cautiously and edging his way into the fight, but he felt that the momentum of winning a title fight so soon before was a big factor in helping him defend the honour.

He said: “Of course, the momentum definitely helped me. An active fighter is a dangerous fighter, and a happy fighter is a dangerous fighter too. I’m happy, I’m active and when I’m those two things, there’s no way that I can go wrong.

“I said before that this was going to happen. It feels great to defend my title at a major show. The opportunity came and I grasped it with both hands.

“I knew that I had won every single round because I was coming back to my corner and that’s what I was being told by my coaches, so I was very calm. It probably looked like I wasn’t too ecstatic, but I already knew I was in control anyway.”

Bowes set the pace in the bout against the former WBA International champion, limiting ‘Fazza’ to only small spells of success, but was still taken the championship distance for the first time in his career before being awarded a unanimous decision.

However, he had previously stated his belief that Farrell would come out of the offence in his home city, so he had expected the fight to last, even if Farrell didn’t challenge him as much as he had predicted.

He said: “The fight went as I expected it to. I just worked when I had to work, I had my strategy and I was glad that it came off.

“He was very cautious. He saw how fast I was and I think if I wasn’t so fast and my left hand wasn’t so powerful, he would have come out and tried to be aggressive, but I guess he just realised the power and speed that I have and backed off a bit.”

The short space of time between the two title bouts certainly could have fatigued Bowes, but he says the support of his coaching team helped to keep him from overtraining.

He said: “They’ve been incredibly supportive, mainly in just doing things at the right time and making sure I don’t peak too early. In that fight, my fitness paid dividends. What I’ve been doing with Leon McKenzie has really made the difference.”

In terms of his next move, Bowes says he is planning to take a rest but is aware of the pace in which things can change.

He said: “Anything can happen. I’m planning to have a rest, but anything can happen because this is boxing. You can get a phone call and you might have to be ready for six weeks’ time, you never know. Right now, though, I’m planning to rest.”