Punter loses £50,000 on big fight

The Hastings-based unlucky loser put the huge sum of money on the WBC super-middleweight title fight between Britain's Carl Froch and Denmark's Mikkel Kessler.

He backed Froch, then reigning champion, at odds of 11/10, and would have won 105,000.

But in a tense and controversial bout last Saturday night the judges gave Kessler the win on points.

William Hill refused to say where the bet was placed by the unnamed man, although it is thought to have been in one of their three shops in Breeds Place, East Beach Street and Old London Road.

It was Froch's first ever defeat in the ring and the punter's disappointment will have been made even worse by suggestions the result was skewed, with Froch claiming the he would have won had the fight not been held in Denmark.

William Hill spokesman Graham Sharp said: "No-one can ever remember the company taking a bigger bet on a boxing match and I can only imagine the emotions he must have gone through during a fight which ebbed and flowed in either direction, building up to a frantic final round in which either man could have been knocked out."