CRAIG Evans could be tempted to go back down to super-featherweight following his defeat by James Tennyson in Liverpool last weekend.

The 30-year-old was dropped for the first time as a professional before being stopped in the penultimate round of the duo’s final eliminator for the British lightweight title.

Blackwood’s Evans now feels that the best option for him going forward might be a return to 130lbs, a weight he fought at earlier in his career in the paid code.

He was unbeaten at super-featherweight and took that success into the 135lbs division, becoming a two-time WBO European lightweight champion.

“I’ll chill out over Christmas and then hopefully get back out in March or April,” he said. “I’m getting married in May, so I’ll look to fight again in September or October.

“I might try and get down to super-featherweight. I made the weight for my last fight without training for a few days before it and eating two meals a day.

“I’d see if I could get fights there. I only moved up before because I couldn’t get fights.

“It will be hard getting down to the weight, but I made lightweight quite comfortably.

“If I’m making it easily, it’s not a struggle, and I’m eating twice a day I may as well go down.”

Evans (20-3-2) is still perplexed by referee Steve Gray’s decision to end the contest with Tennyson prematurely.

The Welshman launched a stirring fightback after that early knockdown, taking the Northern Irishman deeper into a bout than any of his previous opponents.

“I was gutted to see it stopped in the 11th round,” added Evans. “He caught me with a good shot, but I wasn’t hurt at all.

“Going into that round, I thought I’d only lost the first two, and I felt I out-boxed him from the start of the third.

“Going into the 11th round, on the official scorecards it was a draw.

“I boxed well for the first two minutes of the 11th and then he caught me with an uppercut and the referee jumped in.

“I looked a bit tired, but I was fine, he never hurt me. I did drop my hands, but I felt comfortable, I felt good in there.

“I didn’t want to go out like that. If I was hurt, fair enough. I just couldn’t believe he jumped in. I asked him why and he said he was there to protect us.”

As for that early setback, Evans said: “It’s the first time I’ve been dropped. He caught me with a good uppercut, and I saw him rush in, so I took a knee to recover.

“I took the eight count, got up and I was fine. He put me under pressure in the second round, but I moved well and got through it.

“He was strong in the first round and I felt it, and he was catching me in the later rounds, but the punches weren’t having the same effect.”