Matthew Macklin won't make any 'hasty decisions' over his future

Matthew Macklin will not make any ‘hasty decisions’ as he contemplates his future in boxing after being halted in his WBC world title eliminator.

The 32-year-old saw his hopes for another world title fight badly dented by a 10th-round stoppage defeat to Jorge Sebastian Heiland in Dublin on Saturday night.

I’m getting on. I’m not old, but I will have to have a look and see where we go from here. I don’t want to make any hasty decisions

Middleweight Macklin lost a world championship contest to Gennady Golovkin in June 2013 and, having been beaten in four of his last seven bouts, admits he now faces some difficult decisions about his career.

“That’s a fight that I thought I’d definitely need to be winning if I thought I was as good as I was,” he said. “So I have to look at the performance.

“There were a few things in the build-up but I’ve no excuses really. I was fit, I was in shape, I had decent sparring, so I’ll have to analyse the performance.

“I’m getting on. I’m not old, but I will have to have a look and see where we go from here. I don’t want to make any hasty decisions - but certainly at my best I believe I’m world class, capable of winning world titles.”

Macklin had Heilend worried early in Saturday’s fight with a series of right hands to the body, but the Argentine rallied to draw level on the judges’ scorecards after four rounds.

Macklin found himself on the back foot for the remainder of the bout before he was floored by a right hook in the 10th round.

“Maybe I burned off a bit too much energy early on - maybe I’m getting old,” he said. “I don’t know. I’ll have to look back and assess it. He caught me with a nice shot, timed it well, but I felt okay to continue.

“The ref stopped it. I can’t argue. I was tiring at that stage. You’ve got to give him credit. He stepped up well, he was the younger fresher man.

“He fought a smart fight and when he upped it I wasn’t able to and that was probably the difference.”