Bedroom sports blogger lands dream job at Daily Mirror after graduating from the University of Northampton

A former bedroom sports blogger has credited the University of Northampton for setting him on the path to working for one of the UK’s biggest tabloids.

Harry Davies, 22, has been appointed as a boxing and MMA cage fighting writer for the Daily Mirror, just a few weeks after graduating from the UoN’s multimedia sports journalism course.

Harry, from Cambridgeshire, has always been a cage fighting fan and set up his own MMA blog, The UFC Updates, while he was still at school.

But it was at university where he polished off the rough edges of his sports writing to bring it up to an industry level standard.

And now, after years of study and blogging, Harry landed the Mirror job this summer.

Harry said: “The degree massively helped me for work in the real world.

“My knowledge of MMA has come from my passion for the sport, but the ins and outs of presenting, writing and reporting was something I learned thanks to the help and guidance of my lecturers.

“The time and support they gave me throughout my three years at the university was invaluable. I highly recommend the course to anyone who is considering a career in journalism.”

Harry has started his Mirror career working from home, writing news about the biggest bouts in boxing and MMA, and will be covering live events from later in the year.

He added: “It’s all very surreal. I had originally planned to find a summer job to save up some money and move to London for full-time work later this year. However, when this role came to my attention, I couldn’t pass it up.

“To be writing for an internationally recognised paper such as the Mirror, so shortly after university, is a great achievement and I am very proud.”

Adrian Warner, senior lecturer at UoN and a former Reuters, Evening Standard and BBC correspondent, added: "From day one at the university, I could see Harry was determined to get as much experience as he could in journalism to boost his studies. He was always there to cover news stories such as the university's reporting of the last U.S. Presidential election, as well as all kinds of sport.

"It is rare for graduates to get a dream job straight away covering their favourite sport.

"Often you have to get your foot in the door at an organisation and then work towards your dream job. Many of the UK's top journalists started like that. Harry has got there immediately which is fantastic."