Islington light-welterweight Charlie Rice failed in his bid to win the Prizefighter III pot of gold at York Hall on Saturday.

Rice was handed a difficult quarter-final draw against reigning Southern Area champion Danny Connor and went down on points, with two judges scoring the contest 29-28 and the third 30-27, all in Connor’s favour.

But the 21-year-old can take heart from his first loss as a professional, given that Connor went on reach the final, where he was stopped in two rounds by Welshman Chris Jenkins.

Rice – who entered the contest with some nasty inflammation around his left eye, caused by a mosquito bite – performed well in the opening three minutes and enjoyed some success with his right hooks.

However, Connor frequently boxed off the back foot and landed a higher volume of scoring punches to seal the former Times ABC star’s fate.

Rice told the Gazette: “It was my own fault as I did not work hard enough throughout the contest. Now I need to get back to the gym to correct some things and put right what went wrong.”