Shropshire boxer Mark Lloyd furious after defeat

Distraught Shropshire boxer Mark Lloyd was today coming to terms with a controversial defeat which ended his dreams of becoming European Union welterweight champion.

The 35-year-old from Shifnal was beaten on points by Luciano Abis in Cagliari, Italy, last night after the bout was stopped at the end of the sixth round due to a cut over the eye of the home town boxer.

The stoppage meant that the outcome went to the judges scorecard with all three scoring in favour of Abis, 59-56. But there was further controversy because Lloyd had been deducted a point for alleged use of his head in each of the two rounds before the stoppage.

"I feel like my heart has been ripped out of me," Lloyd said from Italy.

"I was hammering him and I would have stopped him, no doubt about it.

"They deducted me two points for use of the head but he was dragging my head down and then went to the judges' scorecards straight after the rounds where I had my points taken off. It's very hard to take."

Abis received the cut to his left eye after an accidental clash of heads during the fourth round.

Had the fight been stopped then, a technical draw would have been declared.

Errol Johnson, Lloyd's manager, echoed his charge's belief that the Shropshire fighter would have come out on top in the event that the fight run its full 12-round course.

"We had a bad start because Mark slipped in the first round and got caught on his way down so they had to class that as a knockdown," said Johnson.

"But Mark boxed his head off in the second, third, fifth and sixth rounds and Abis wasn't enjoying it at all.

"It was as well as he had boxed for a while."

Lloyd's defeat will place fresh question marks over whether he will continue in the sport.