Former world heavyweight title challenger Matt Skelton says he is unlikely to consider hanging up his gloves until the end of the year.

Skelts, 43, a former British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight king, was stopped in the fourth round of his bout with relatively unknown Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev in Neubrandenburg, Germany on Saturday evening.

He told the Times & Citizen: "I'm going to stay in the gym and stay as active as much as I can until the end of the year and, if any fights come my way over here or abroad, then I'll take them.

"My licence expires at the end of this year, medical and everything and I'm not sure if I'll bother renewing it, but we'll see what this year brings."

The Bedford Bear had taken the fight against unbeaten Pulev over eight rounds at short notice, after his scheduled fight with Derek Chisora at Wembley Arena for the Southern Area title on February 13 was called off.

That was because Chisora was offered a British title shot at Danny Williams following Sam Sexton's withdrawal, although Williams has also since pulled out to be replaced by Carl Baker.

Following Williams' withdrawal, Skelts was again touted as a possible opponent for Chisora, as an eliminator for a British title shot. But, having already agreed to take the Pulev fight, Baker was handed a shot at Chisora.

Despite his disappointment at losing out on a fight with Chisora that would undoubtedly have propelled him back into the spotlight, Skelton said he had no regrets about taking the Pulev fight.

He said: "When the fight with Chisora got called off, I didn't know how long I would be sitting inactive for.

"So when the German promoters got in touch with us, we decided to take the fight. It kind of worked out to my detriment really, I probably shouldn't have taken it at five days notice, but that's life I suppose."