A PACKED out crowd witnessed the return of professional boxing to the Northgate Arena on Saturday – but their hopes of seeing a hometown champion were dashed.

Despite valiant efforts, Chester Boxers duo Chris Goodwin and Paul Economides both missed out on titles following points decision defeats to Carl Johanneson and Dai Davies respectively.

Goodwin, 23, was unable to capture the English lightweight crown after opponent Johanneson, 33, shaded the contest after throwing more punches in the mid-rounds.

One judge scored Goodwin 96-95. The other two judges on the panel, however, had the veteran Leeds fighter as a 97-95 and 99-93 winner.

“I thought the fight was on a knife edge if I’m honest and it really could have gone either way,” said Goodwin’s trainer and father, Steve.

“I have no idea where the judge got 99-93 from as it was a close fight and Chris gave a really good performance against an opponent with a fantastic pedigree.

“I think that he matched him for the most part but he could have boxed more in the middle rounds. That is something that we have got to work on with him.”

After dominating early on, Goodwin Jnr had looked on course to secure a second straight title victory at the Northgate following his International Masters lightweight success over Geoffrey Munika in October.

But it was the more experienced Johanneson who eventually emerged victorious.

“Chris is only young and we can take a lot of positives from the fight,” said Goodwin Snr.

“We upped the quality of opponent so that we could see where we were at with Chris and we are definitely pleased with how he performed.”

There was also defeat for Economides, 25, who lost out to Merthyr Tydfil’s Dai Davies, 28, in a battle for the vacant Welsh featherweight strap.

“Paul boxed well but there was a massive size difference between him and Dai Davies,” said Goodwin Snr.

There were wins at the Fight Options show for promising boxers from the area.

Joe Lovell, Andy Keates, Paul Davies and Sean Dodd were triumphant in front of an impressive Northgate crowd which included former Chester City manager and England defender Mark Wright.

“It was a really good show and I can’t thank Fight Options enough for putting it on,” said Goodwin Snr.