Shaun King's short notice outing ended in a narrow defeat against a cooler and calmer Matt Hale.

King came out to finish this one early and Hale certainly took a while to adjust to the onslaught, but adjust he did and after a shaky 1st round the tide turned.

King worked well behind his jab but was unable to follow through by the second round, allowing Hale to score clean shots - more often.

That was the pattern for this contest and the identical scores from the judges of 29-28 (2 rounds to 1 - 3 times) reflected the action fairly.

A defeat but good experience for the aggressive Kickboxer. We look forward to his April appearance.