Bradley Saunders (13-1) returned to the ring with an explosive first-round stoppage win over Northern Ireland’s unsuspecting Casey Blair (4-29) in his dramatic comeback fight following injury in Newcastle on Friday June 23rd.

The six-round contest at super-lightweight took place on the latest JDNXTGEN show at the Walker Activity Dome, televised live on Sky Sports and Sky Sports Facebook.

After over 20-months out with career-threatening hand injuries, Sedgefield’s Saunders looked like he hadn’t been anywhere at all as he sizzled in a sensational stoppage victory that took just 163 seconds to exact.

The 31-year-old looked as good as ever as he broke through Blair’s defence to send him reeling backwards, stunned by a right hand in the closing seconds of the opener, to which the former Olympian swarmed him with straight left and rights before referee Steve Hawkins called of the scheduled six-round contest with 17 seconds left on the clock.

The TKO takes Saunders’ knockout count up to double figures with 10 KO’s from 13 wins and a hat-trick of first-round stoppages.

The Beijing 2008 Olympian was forced to consider retirement after emergency surgery to fix both injury-plagued hands after his first and only loss in the professional ranks via disqualification to Frenchman Renald Garrido (14-11-1) at the Liverpool Olympia back in September 2015.

Also on the card, lightweight Natasha Jonas made an impressive start to her professional career with a first-round stoppage of Monika Antonik in Newcastle.

A right hook rocked Antonik as she staggered into the ropes and, with the Pole dazed, Jonas landed another punch before the referee stepped in to stop the contest after a straight left found its target.

Trainer Joe Gallagher told Sky Sports: "It was a great debut, a dream debut. She trained really well and finished off with a very sharp performance."

Welterweight prospect Joshua Kelly (3-0, 2 KOs) stopped Tom Withfield (4-2) in the first round of action.

Olympian Anthony Fowler (2-0, 2 KOs) made it another TKO victory, with a fourth round knockout of Nikoloz Gvajava (9-10), who was down twice in the third and once in the fourth.

Veteran Stuart Hall (21-5-2, 7 KOs) bounced back from last September loss to Lee Haskins, by winning a six round decision over Jose Aguilar (16-36). The referee scored it 60-54.