Decision goes against annoyed Watson

But despite this setback in Leeds being his second successive defeat after a perfect 10 wins at the start of his career, the 26-year-old Guernsey bantamweight remains confident about the future.

However, he was far from impressed about the nature of this particular six-round defeat, with his ire aimed at the fight referee.

'At the end of every single round I went back to my corner and my coach had a massive grin on his face, telling me just to carry on doing what I was doing because I was beating him,' said Watson.

'I am not saying it was a big win or anything like that, he was a tough lad and was hard to break down, but I cannot believe the decision went against me.'

But Watson says that he will shrug it off and plans to be back out in late-January and will be back fighting at one of his natural super-flyweight or bantamweight.

'But I decided to still go up against him in what isn't my natural weight against a natural featherweight who took all my shots far better than any super-fly or bantamweight would.

'So for me, this doesn't really count as a loss and it doesn't change where I want to head and where I can reach at either super-fly or bantamweight in the next few months.'