Recent inductees into professional boxing at the 2013 Wray & Nephew Contender Middleweight series again failed to progress as Everton Eccleston made a swift exit after being knocked down by Kevin ‘Bus Boy’ Hylton and the fight being stopped at one minute, five seconds of the first round.

Following a flurry of punches from Hylton from the word go and, a head-but in the opening stages of the round, seemed to unsettle Eccleston. He was then cornered by Hylton and received a stinging right that put him down for a count of eight at the Chinese Benevolent Society on Wednesday night.

Eccleston managed to beat the mandatory 10 count from the knock down but did so looking disoriented and groggy standing on unsteady feet. He looked far from recovered but apparently wanted to continue.

But referee Ransford Burton would have none of that. He quickly evaluated the situation that Eccleston was in no condition to continue, declared the fight over and awarded the decision to Hylton.

Eccleston, who is a former light heavyweight amateur champion who dropped weight to come down to compete as a middleweight, told reporters what went wrong . “The head butt caught him off guard, but (I) was willing and able to finish the fight. The referee was just weak and did not like to see blood and he stopped the fight. I got up to beat the count and was ready to continue but the referee stopped the fight,” he said.

The Green Team debutante then added: “It was not a very good start for me. I did not plan to begin my professional career losing. The referee was afraid of blood I was not afraid of blood I was prepared to war to the end. I worked too hard for it to be stopped like this,” Eccleston moaned.

Contrary to Eccleston’s claim that he was in good enough shape to continue, his trainer Carl Grant saw it otherwise. “He was out and the referee did the just thing to stop the fight,” Grant said.

“He was just making his professional debut and Kevin is in the fight game a long time and experience showed that when a kid is making his debut compared to a boxer who is in the game for long time the better man with the experience is going to win,” Grant added.

Hylton, a welterweight who moved up the scale and provided the Yellow Team with their second consecutive success following a 4-0 drubbing by the Green Team in the first four preliminary bouts of six rounds each, said: “Definitely when my bus a run and you don’t have the right cash to ride on my bus you a go get throw off. I mean literally throw off and that is what I did,” he said after the victory.

Asked whether or not he was surprised at the way that Eccleston went down, Hylton said: “Well I am working with the coach Andrew Boland and Joshua and they say boy if you get the chance to knock him out just knock him out… so I just stick to the plan and came out victorious,” said the victor.

Hylton, who has competed in the Wray & Nephew Contender series before, was asked if this was his year for going all the way. “I’m working with God and God is working with me, so I will stick with the plan,” he said post fight.