St Ives fighter Tyler Goodjohn missed out on a second English belt of his career last night.

Goodjohn was beaten unanimously on points by holder Johnny Garton in a national welterweight title war at the York Hall in London.

Garton received verdicts of 99-91, 99-91 and 98-92 from the judges following a hard-hitting showdown.

His trainer, St Ives Boxing Academy chief Steve Whitwell, said: “Tyler has a reputation for being a warrior who will stand and trade with anyone.

“It hasn’t always worked, but it has made him one of the most exciting fighters in the country.

“My job was to try to get him boxing more. We’ve done lots of work on defensive skills and head movement.

“Tyler boxed a dream in the first three rounds and thought we might be on course for a comfortable success.

“But he got wobbled and took a lot of shots in the fourth round almost to the point where I feared the fight might be stopped.

“That was the turning point as Tyler then reverted to auto pilot and took the fight to Garton, which is not something we wanted to do.

“He started boxing again in the final three rounds, but he didn’t have enough left by then to turn the fight back his way.”

It was Goodjohn’s first outing for a year and only his second since stepping up to the welterweight division.

Whitwell now plans for Goodjohn to have a couple of smaller fights to pull himself back into title contention again.