KRIS Agyei-Dua is 'absolutely gutted' after a dislocated shoulder effectively ended his challenge for the Southern Area title.
The Hutton boxer, 32, suffered the injury in round four of his re-match with Nathan Green at the Brentwood Centre on Saturday night.
And although the super middleweight bravely fought on the referee soon stepped in seconds later when his opponent landed a barrage of punches.
"I thought the fight was just turning round and I'm absolutely gutted to be honest," he told the Gazette.
"At the end of the day you'd almost prefer to lose and go the whole distance and do what you set out to do. But something like this is so gutting because of all the work that you've put into it.
"The first few rounds didn't go my way but we half expected that as he was the sharper of the two but I'm convinced that I was the fitter of the two and the longer it goes on the more it would have suited me."
It's unclear whether the injury was caused by a punch to the shoulder or a hyperextension of the joint when throwing a shot of his own.
But Agyei-Dua, a former St Martins school pupil, and his trainer Jamie Wiliams, were still desperate to carry on the bout and claim the title which has been vacant since the duo battled out a draw in September.
"The fight meant so much that I just said to my trainer 'try and pop it in'," he said.
"I begged the referee to let me finish the round and I thought I'd have another round to try and get a knockout with the other hand.
"I'd seen something on the telly before about how to do it.
"I just put my glove under my armpit and I was saying to James: 'pull, pull, pull'. I gave it a bit of a wrench and it sort of popped back in."
But the arm soon gave way again and Green sensed a chance to wrap things up quickly well before the end of the ten scheduled rounds.
"He knew my arm had gone and he jumped on me straight away and I took a few punches."
Now he's desperate to fight Green for a third time but doesn't know how long he'll be sidelined.
"I think we'll make moves towards another rematch but it's going to be massively dependent on how long it takes me to get back from this," he said.
"I've got to go to the fracture clinic and I'd imagine I'll have to rest for at least three weeks."
