A WELL-KNOWN Carlisle fighter has posted a video from the Philippines as authorities there seek to deport him.

Carlisle bare-knuckle fighter turned actor Derek 'Decca' Heggie posted a YouTube video on Tuesday, November 28 saying he was in a detention centre in the Philippines.

In an emotional state, Mr Heggie said the video, posted on the Bareknuckle Street Fighting & Boxing Brawls channel, would be ‘his last for a while’, saying he was detained in the Philippines for three months and would not be able to post any videos.

He said: “I just want to say thank you to everybody that has supported me, everyone that follows me, everyone that’s got behind me, you know just, I love you all.

“Mam, dad I love you. It’s the hardest video I have ever had to make really.

“Most of all I want to say thank you to the love of my life Chu, if it wasn’t for that woman I wouldn’t be here today.”

Philippine authorities announced that Mr Heggie had been detained in the Bureau of Immigration (BI) office in Mandaue City, pending transfer to the BI warden facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.

This was after he was apprehended at a residential unit in Barangay Guadalupe, Bogo City.

In a statement, immigration commissioner Norman Tansingco said Mr Heggie "will be deported after our board of commissioners issue the orders for their summary deportation."

It is understood that Mr Heggie may be being deported for reasons linked with a criminal conviction dating back to 2005.

The News & Star understands he is not wanted by British authorities, and they are not seeking his deportation.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: “We are assisting a British man who is detained in the Philippines.”

Mr Heggie grew up in Harraby and worked as a doorman in Carlisle, and has spoken candidly in the past about his drug abuse and struggles with bipolar disorder. As a bare-knuckle boxer he was British heavyweight champion and in 2016 won the coveted Guvnor title against Julius Francis, a former opponent of Mike Tyson. He has acted in the 2019 crime thriller The Corrupted alongside Timothy Spall, Hugh Bonneville, Noel Clarke and Sam Claflin.