Sheffield journeyman Lee Connelly given standing ovation after 99th and final fight in decade-long career

The outcome could not have been closer with referee Andy Brook scoring the bout 59-58 in Flint’s favour after six full-blooded rounds at the Magna Centre in Rotherham on Sunday afternoon.

A ding dong battle between the pair, who previously shared a draw in 2019, went back and forth until the final bell, with 25-year-old Flint edging the closing stages as Connelly – ten years his senior – tired.

Flint’s manager, Stefy Bull, labelled it “one of the best fights on a small hall show I’ve ever seen in my life.”

He added: "What a way to go out.

“That was a very, very hard and close fight.”

The Doncaster brawler’s stablemates admitted it was a ‘fifty-fifty’ bout before the first bell, which brought with it fireworks as both men held nothing back from the off.

They traded leather continuously throughout, with Connelly applying pressure in the opening rounds and absorbing everything coming his way well.

Flint enjoyed a better round in the third before Connelly hit back in round four and parity was restored.

But he tired in the fifth round as Flint, who could have been finished had he been beaten, began to shade the close contest – although far from comfortably.

Both men summoned enough energy for one final showdown in the sixth and final round, trading shots until the end.

“As soon as Stefy said we have got Lee and it came out it was his final fight I knew it was going to be tough,” admitted Flint, who earned his twelfth career win.

"He’s a tough, tough man.”

The pair shared an embrace as the final bell sounded and the curtain came down on Connelly’s decade-long professional career on the road.

Flint said: "It wasn’t really boxing, it was grit and determination – it was a fight.

"I thought I had it by a couple of rounds. I know I did what I had to do.”

Connelly was visibly disappointed with the decision, which some in the crowd believed to be contentious.

But, as he knows only too well, that’s how it goes in the away corner.