A NURSERY chef has swapped oven gloves for boxing gloves after a charity match reignited his passion for the sport.

Neil Derry, from Bicester, stepped back in the ring last summer for the first time in 15years to raise £700 for charity.

The amateur boxer has since taken up the sport full-time and is donning his gloves once more on Saturday for another charity match.

He said: "After the charity fight last year with White Collar Boxing, I was asked to join and fight with them.

"I have had four fights and haven’t lost yet – so it feels great to be undefeated.

"I boxed from the age 14 to 18 but gave it up when my mum lost her car and living in Bicester we did not have the means to travel to boxing."

Mr ‘Magnum’ Derry, 34, spends his days cooking up a storm at The Co-operative Childcare nursery in Oxford.

When he is not cooking for the youngsters, he is training twice a week in the ring and is now preparing for the match on Saturday ((March 5)).

The Highfield Social Club in George Street, Bicester, is hosting 10 fights throughout the night and a charity auction, which will raise funds for sick children.

Prizes on the night include signed Joe Calzaghe – former WBO middleweight champion of the world – boxing gloves, with all funds going to the critical car unit at the Banbury Horton General Hospital.

Mr Derry said: "I did the first charity fight last summer for a charity called Hope and Dreams children’s charity. [help make the dreams and wishes of seriously or terminally ill children to become reality.]

"It was something close to my heart as my little cousin Ben Carvel died of leukaemia when he was about five.

"He never got to do anything at the end of his life except lie in a hospital bed at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

"I want to be able to do something for those children that are sick in hospital."

The amateur boxing event ‘Back with a Bang’ will be held at the George Street venue on Saturday from 6pm.

Also fighting is Tom Wales, Ade Way, Mark Essex, Keiron Jones, Hannah Richards, Ben Barker and Jason Gibbons.

Tickets are £25 and can be purchased from 07341877863