STETSON-wearing fighter John Wayne Hibbert admits to being annoyed with himself despite his winning performance at the world famous York Hall in Bethnal Green.

The Orsett-born welterweight — whose real name is Wayne Hibbert — was cheered enthusiastically by Thurrock friends and relations when he climbed into the ring for a six-round encounter with William Warbur-ton.

And Hibbert prevailed by putting on one of his trademark attacking displays.

About the only time the decibel levels dropped was after Hibbert received a cut above the left eye in third round.

Hibbert seemed unfazed by the cut as he kept on pressuring Warburton to secure a tidy 59-55 points victory.

But the victory masked a secret as Hibbert, a floor-layer from Stanford le Hope, had been unable to spar properly for two weeks in the run up to the fight.

He said: “It was a really tough fight for me and I was a bit disappointed because I always want to give my best and this time I was not able to.

“I had an off day and never really seemed to get out of first gear.

“What made it worse was that two weeks ago I’d cut my eye sparring against Michael Lomax and so for the run up to the event I was only able to spar with punches to the body.

“Although I won the fight I had to dig deep. I just kept thinking about my daughter Lexie and trying my hardest,” the 26-year-old fighter said.

But he’s already started to look ahead and believes that his next fight will be in March at Goresbrook.

“I’d like to say thanks to all the peeople who came to the York Hall to support me, my sponsors and my cuts man Richard Clark who patched me up when I got caught and cut at the weekend,” he added.

“I didn’t feel the cut, but it is off-putting when there is a lot of blood in your eye.”

York Hall has been a lucky venue for Hibbert as he has defeated Rick Boulter, Bheki Moyo, Kevin McCauley, Andrew Patterson and Damien Turner at the well-known East End fight venue.

Hibbert trains at the Noble Art Gym in Rainham, but also does road work in and around Stanford.

He was on the same Judgement Day bill as Yassine El Maachi who defended his International Masters Light Middleweight title, against Haitian Jimmy Colas.