Jermaine Pennant involved in 'brutal' fight with Matt Hancock on TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins

Jermaine Pennant has opened up about his "savage" punch-up with politician Matt Hancock on the popular Channel 4 show Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

He will take on a number of gruelling military-style challenges alongside his fellow celebrities, including former professional rugby player Gareth Thomas.

For context, milling is a training activity in the British airborne infantry where two opponents punch each other in the head as aggressively as possible without evasion.

Pennant has since spoke about the scrap with Hancock, who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for three years.

“We’re not named, we're just numbers so they shouted out my number and they shouted out Matt’s and as I was getting ready I was thinking the nation is going to be seeing this, do not lose.”

He added: “[I told myself] do not put it on the canvas. All you’ve got to do is just beat Matt Hancock and you’ll be a national hero."

Pennant also said he was "very grateful" that he won to save face, although Hancock did put up a good fight, as you can see in the footage above.

Chief instructor Mark "Billy" Billingham, who is a former SAS operator, made his feelings clear about Hancock's appearance on the show.

"He gave it 100% , he got stuck in. The only thing is, he's a typical politician, won't give a straight answer," Billingham said. "It took a while to dig into him, to get to the bottom of him and got quite annoying at times."

He added: ""He got pushed through his paces and anytime he showed any attitude or any sort of fight back he really got pushed back."