BOURNEMOUTH boxer Denise Castle clinched the WIBA world minimumweight crown with a stunning fifth-round stoppage of Sutthinee Bamrungpao in Bangkok.

Castle, a former Muay Thai world champion who was named the WBC most inspirational athlete of the year back in 2013, switched disciplines to boxing a year later.

And, after two failed previous attempts, the puncher has now sealed a world title in her new chosen sport with victory in sweltering conditions in Thailand.

"This was a different fight than I had planned for," Castle admitted.

"Having only seen one round of Bamrungpao prior to the fight, she actually came out as a vastly different fighter, which along with the temperature being 37 degrees threw me in the first round.

“Bamrungpao has a better reach than I had anticipated and it took me until round three to work past that and find my range.

"However once that was settled I knew that it was just going to be a matter of when I would be able to finish this fight. With a very strong round four to me where I punished her body, I managed to then switch to the lead hook in round five to force the ref to step in and stop the fight to save her from more punishment."

She added: “As I said, this was not the fight I had prepared for. Coming off a great 10 rounds against (Fabiana) Bytyqi in my last fight in Czech Republic, the heat and unanticipated style and reach of Bamrungpao took me by surprise. She was actually very hard to hit with her movement fighting off the back foot and I didn’t find my reach until the end of round three where a couple of good shots from her actually almost woke me up.

"However once that had clicked into place it was just one way traffic - and I am happy with the fifth round stoppage - clean, crisp and no injuries.”