Merritt and his team travelled to Albion Park hoping for a straightforward win against debutant Aaron Benson, but it never came.

Merritt’s greatest strength, his fitness, was matched by Benson which shocked Merritt’s coach ‘Spider’.

“In his last two fights Nath has just ruined his opponents with his fitness but that didn’t happen,” he told the Tribune after the fight.

“To be honest I was expecting to win a bit easier than we did but that goes to show how good the other guy was, he really had a crack.”

Instead of his fitness, it was Merritt’s boxing prowess that got him the win. Spider said an early shot to Merritt’s hernia was a massive spanner in the works.

“After he got hit there he just looked like Muhammad Ali and showed some beautiful boxing off the back foot.

“Nath was able to slow the other guy down until he regained his composure and he was pretty dangerous after that.”

While he was satisfied with his subject’s performance, Spider said there was definitely lots to work on.

“Nath’s a great trainer, he works hard but I think his listening and application of our game plans needs a bit of improvement.

“I’m not there to be his friend and piss in his pocket, I always need to be looking at where we can improve, that’s my job.

“In saying all that, the guy’s three from three, you can’t really complain can you?”

Merritt is already back in the gym, training harder than ever.