Hundreds attend funeral of Dundee boxer Mike Towell

The family of boxer Mike Towell, who died after a televised fight, have said it was a "real comfort" to have his opponent at his funeral.

Welsh fighter Dale Evans was among about 300 people to attend the service at St Andrew's Cathedral in Dundee

Mike Towell, 25, died in hospital on 30 September, a day after being knocked down twice during the bout in Glasgow.

In a statement Towell's family said they attached no blame to his welterweight opponent.

Towell's family asked those attending the funeral to celebrate the life of the boxer, known as "Iron Mike".

Many friends and members of Towell's boxing club arrived at the funeral wearing white T-shirts with a picture of Towell celebrating a win, with "Iron Mike Towell" written on the back.

Dale Evans (centre) was comforted following the service

Others wore hoodies with messages such as "Dundee's champ", "Team Towell" and "the legend lives on".

Members of the Stirling gym where Towell trained also wore T-shirts with "1314" on them, in reference to the name of the complex.

In a statement issued later, Towell's family said: "Today is the hardest day of all for us, the day we realised for sure really that Mike wasn't coming home to us.

"The two weeks since we lost him have been very hard for us to bear, it has seemed almost surreal.

"Yet it has been a time when we have needed the strength of each other and of those around us."

The family said it had been a "real comfort" to have Dale Evans at the funeral service.

The statement said: "He has also been through so much and no fault will ever lie with him, this was just two boys boxing and doing what they loved best."

"Dale is a terrific lad and it has meant so much that he has kept in touch with us so much since the fight. He is in bits and devastated like us all.

"We are thinking about him, we care about him and we would like to thank Dale and all the thousands who have sent messages of support and goodwill since Mike passed.

"We have lost a son, a partner and a father and we will always mourn him, yet we know we will always smile every day at his memory too."

Dale Evans, from Carmarthen, later posed for a photograph at a tribute mural to Towell at Dundee Waterfront.

Dale Evans tweeted a picture from the Dundee tribute mural to Towell

The hearse arrived at the cathedral accompanied by floral tributes reading "daddy" and "Iron Mike".

Undertakers escorted the coffin into the service with a floral crucifix sitting on top.

Dundee sports journalist Jim Spence said the service, conducted by Canon Kevin Golden, was "very emotional."

He said: "It was the city turning out to give its respects to a favoured son who had a great record in boxing.

"He had a terrific future ahead of him, so St Andrew's Cathedral was absolutely chockablock.

"He had achieved so much in such a short space of time, but a great tragedy and a great sadness that it was cut short so tragically."

Money raised at the funeral in lieu of flowers will be donated to the special care baby unit at Dundee's Ninewells Hospital, where Towell spent a week when he was born, and the neurology unit at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

Towell was knocked down in the first round of the fight at the Radisson Blu Hotel, before recovering to continue the match.

Referee Victor Loughlin stopped the fight in the fifth round shortly after Towell was knocked down by Evans for a second time.

He received treatment in the ring and was given oxygen before being taken to an ambulance on a stretcher.

In a Facebook post, his partner Chloe Ross later revealed Towell had been suffering from migraines in the weeks before the fight but had dismissed them as pre-fight stress.