A County Durham fighter is to meet a specialist hand surgeon in a bid to save his career.

Light-welterweight prospect Bradley Saunders badly damaged both his hands during a disastrous comeback fight from injury in Liverpool earlier this month.

To add insult to injury, the 29 year-old from Sedgefield lost after being disqualified for an intentional headbutt to his opponent, Renald Garrido, in full view of the referee.

After 13 fights, the painful defeat resulted in the loss of his 100 per cent winning record.

"I won't lie, I did put my head down but it was just my instinct in a fight," said the former WBO Inter-Continental Champion.

"I don't want to do that in the boxing ring but when I can't punch what could I have done.

"I ran out of ideas if I'm honest, if it wasn't for my hands I would have won that fight".

After the fight, Saunders uploaded images of his hands in splints on social media channels and prepares to meet with the same surgeon that previously performed surgery on both his hands in what will be a third attempt to fix a recurring problem

"It's normally it's just the one hand which has been hurt before," continued Saunders.

"The left hand was usually the bad one and then I injured my right one which was the injury I was returning from.

"It wasn't my coaches fault, he got me really fit for the fight and it wasn't mine either so I don't know what happened".

A disappointed Saunders has called for a rematch if his hands fully heal back to fighting health.

However, he admits he's now thinking about life outside of the ring if the injury ends his career but appreciates the fans support.

"I've got a lot of fans in the North East and I can't thank them enough," said Saunders.

"But I've got bigger and better ideas for the North East outside of boxing and I always have done.

"I don't believe there's a professional boxing gym in the North East, so that is something I'm definitely going to look into".