BOXER Jason Welborn has no plans to pack up his gloves despite his defeat to JJ Metcalf at Leeds First Direct Arena following their clash for the vacant Commonwealth super welterweight title.

Rowley Regis based Welborn was stopped in the eighth round following a blow to the stomach but later revealed he'd damaged his hand early in the fight.

Welborn said: "At the beginning of the second round, I thought I'd bust my left hand. I hit him on the head with a couple of jabs and my hand went numb.

"But I was more annoyed with the referee than anything else because Metcalf kept hitting me with low blows. I told the referee about it. Then I gave him one back and the referee pulls me up about it.

"It all got a bit messy and then he put me down with another low blow and I didn't recover from it and he doubled me up. I was fuming.

"It wasn't my night but I needed this fight to get me back up there again and I'm gutted about what happened but there are no excuses.

"But I don't want to call it a day. I've still got a few more good fights left in me yet."

Welborn revealed he spent five hours in hospital after the fight having x-rays on his injuries and said: "There are no fractures or breaks - just swelling. It could be damaged tendons but I'll just have to wait until the swelling goes down. I'm not worried about the hand because that will recover.

"I felt strong on the night, so there wasn't a problem with the weight - but I could always go back up to middleweight if I wanted to.

"However, I vacated the British title when I went to America to fight Jarrett Hurd.

"I won't be making any decisions about my future at the moment and I will speak with my trainer Errol Johnson to see where we go from here".