Donovan Smillie will take a break after his explosive encounter with Matthew Thirlwall.

The Bradford super-middleweight intends to put his feet up after a fight that is already a nomination for undercard scrap of the year.

But Smillie has promised to emerge stronger and more determined from the loss - his second in the space of five weeks.

"It's not put me off at all," he said. "I'll take some time off now but then I'll be back into the gym again.

"I felt fine afterwards, just the usual bumps and bruises. He was a lot worse off.

"Hopefully I'm planning to have a couple of warm-up fights and then go for something bigger later in the year.

"It was a great fight and I've shown my heart.

"I got knocked down but came right back again and one punch either way was going to finish it."

Smillie remains eager to force his way into the domestic picture - and admits he was probably too keen to take the York Hall fight, which was stopped in the ninth round.

Coming hot on the heels of his controversial English title loss against Steve Bendall, Smillie wanted to wipe the slate clean at the earliest opportunity.

He said: "I went in there desperate for a win but sometimes you've got to have patience.

If I had given myself longer to prepare then I know I could have beaten him," added Smillie.

"It was my choice but I only had three weeks to get ready and, with moving gym as well, things have been different.

"He was a tough fighter and he outboxed me but we both gave it the lot. I just should have kept my hands up to take it into the last round because he would have been gone by then."

Former ABA champion Thirlwall was impressed by Smillie's powers of recovery.

He said: "Donovan was very durable. I clipped him a lot of times and thought he might go early but somehow he hung on in there.

"I was about to stop him in the fourth, the ref was ready to jump in, but the bell went just at the right time for him. He came out for the fifth okay. He also used his extra weight well. I think that made him that bit more able to resist some of my shots and he was able to push me back a little when he was in trouble."