Shropshire’s Mark Lloyd suffered heartbreak in his British title eliminator – being just 54 seconds from handing Jamie Cox his first professional defeat.

Shifnal-based Lloyd was stopped in the eighth and final round of a bruising Sky-televised battle at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall last night by the much-vaunted 22-year-old prospect from Swindon.

The fight was stopped with the referee scoring the punching plumber ahead by one round.

Cox went into the fight looking for his fifth straight knockout win, having never lost a round in 10 straight wins in the paid ranks.

But he raised the ire of all by simulating a kick at Lloyd after his opponent had slipped in the first round.

And Lloyd’s trainer Errol Johnson felt he could have been disqualified.

He said: “Jamie is lucky, because I have seen fighters thrown out for the same thing. His antics were dirty throughout, I was amazed he got away without a warning.

“Mark definitely was one round up going into the last round – the referee told me so afterwards.”

Lloyd was despondent after the fight.

He said: “I am heartbroken, I was ahead but lost it in the last round.

“But I’ll be back, don’t you worry about that.

“I’d like to thank the fans, who were superb, and my wife, for putting up with me these past few weeks.”

l WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch weighed in one pound heavier than challenger Jermain Taylor when the fighters hit the scales ahead of tonight’s title fight in Connecticut.

Froch (24-0, 19 KOs) is making his first title defence since out-pointing Jean Pascal in an unanimous decision in his hometown of Nottingham last November.

By Craig Birch