Bobby Vanzie has admitted that he wanted to quit boxing on Saturday night after losing his Commonwealth lightweight title to Ghana's James Armah.

It was his first defeat in 22 professional fights and he was going to hang up his gloves until being persuaded to box on by many of his loyal supporters who visited his Horton Bank Top home yesterday.

"I told my wife Angela I was going to retire. Losing was something I just hadn't considered. I was hurting mentally and physically after the fight," said Vanzie.

"My face looked as if I had been hit by a baseball bat and I didn't feel I could go on. I was not planning to go out at all yesterday. I wanted to stay at home and hide away but a lot of my followers came to visit me.

"Their kindness and support convinced me that I should carry on. I know that at this moment I am feeling very low, but I can bounce back.''

Vanzie now faces the tough job of picking himself up in readiness for a mandatory British title defence against Harlow's Steve Murray which is likely to be staged on March 10.

That does not give Vanzie much time. He will have to return to full training almost immediately.

The Bradford boxer has only himself to blame for a defeat which seemed more convincing than the 115-114 margin on the card of Leeds referee Micky Vann.

The official result meant that the one-point Vanzie had deducted for persistent holding in the fifth round ultimately decided the outcome and put the first loss on his 22 fight career.

But that perhaps masks the truth on an evening when the Viper had no venom and no snap in his punching.

His detractors will delight in his misfortune because ever since he defeated Stephen Smith in controversial circumstances last January they have pointed the finger at his tendency to bend the rules.

His punches had no impact on Armah, the Commonwealth super-featherweight champion, who simply kept walking forward. The strength of the African's blows was hard to gauge because many were delivered with an open glove but he clearly wasn't fazed by Vanzie's ugly tactics.

The fight had to be endured rather than enjoyed. There was a horrible clash of styles and it was hardly the sort of spectacle which will improve Vanzie's marketability.

But sometimes good can come from defeat if the lessons are absorbed. World heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis has never looked back since he was defeated by Oliver McCall to lose his WBC crown in 1992.

The best thing that Vanzie can do is rid himself of the notion that he was unlucky. Afterwards he said: "I thought I had done at least enough to get a draw or even to have just won it."

He would be better to address the pertinent issues now facing him if he wants to bounce back and rekindle his hopes of being a world champion.

This would be a good time to analyse a style which had begun to look fallible even before Saturday night and examine his training methods and preparation.

The showboating, posing and spoiling tactics have been allowed to obscure his natural boxing skills and punching power.

The decisions he makes in the next few days will ultimately decide the destiny of his career. A manadatory defence of his British title against Harlow's Steve Murray looms in March but that must be in doubt.

He looks in need of rest and a period of reflection. He has to rediscover the hunger and the style which made him a champion. Without it he will be starved of the big stage and the title fights that could define his future.