"I WOULD rather get knocked out cold then quit!"

This was the sentiment carried by Bradford boxer Darren Tetley after beating the count twice during his maiden defeat to Middleton's Liam Taylor.

"I have always known that I had a big heart. I will never stop fighting," Tetley reiterated.

"I could have quite easily bottled it after the knockdowns, but there is no way I was going to do that. No one can call me a quitter."

It was this warrior mentality that saw the Holme Wood fighter narrowly outpointed in the British and Commonwealth welterweight titles eliminator on the entertaining behind-closed-doors MTK Global card in Wakefield.

Tetley started well, boxing in and out, evading the short Taylor bursts, but it all came tumbling down in the second and third where he touched the canvas.

"You have two 10-8 rounds against you and that’s you four rounds down," he said.

"He caught me early in the second which threw me off a bit. The first knockdown, the body shot was straight down the middle. It was one of those shots where before you know it you are looking up and thinking what am I doing down here.

"The third round I got back to my boxing and was winning it, then in the last 20 seconds, he caught me with a head shot.

"It felt like my jaw clicked then I got a sugar taste. I have never been hurt with a head shot before. I wasn’t used to it so I probably panicked a little bit.

"I think I recovered well. The following rounds, I probably won most of them and the scorecards reflect that."

He added: "I badly wobbled him so I had the power as well. Some of the shots I was hitting him with I thought he was going to go eventually.

"I was just thinking go down so it will equal it up a bit. He took massive shots and kept coming forward."

The 27-year-old is not disheartened by the result though and admits it was inevitable that he would lose at one stage in his professional career.

Tetley even feels that the defeat might do him some favours in the future.

He added: "A lot of people said it should have been for a British title, it was a shame that it was just an eliminator. I was in a good fight.

"It probably got my name out more than my last 20 wins have done.

"I showed that I can get hurt and still fight back and then nearly win the fight. I showed a lot of quality.

"I take a lot of positives from that. It was obvious that the undefeated record was going to go at some point, I was never going to get to 49-0."

So, what's next for the Bradfordian?

"If he (Taylor) goes and wins the British title (against Wales' Chris Jenkins), he said to me he will go give me the first defence. That was a 10 round war, but it will be a 12 round war next time.

"I will come back stronger and I still think I will get that British title at some point."