Joe Joyce is not sure if he will walk straight into an immediate rematch with Zhilei Zhang.
The Briton lost his WBO heavyweight mandatory status and the interim championship with a sixth-round stoppage when the referee ruled he could not see sufficiently out of a swollen eye.
The 37-year-old was unsure if he would fight the Chinese contender again, and it leaves Zhang open to a potential title shot against unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, who had been in Joyce’s sights until his defeat.
"I've had my loss but I'll be back," Joyce told BBC Sport after the fight.
"The journey will continue."
Discussing his injury, he said: "I can still see through it, I think it's just bruised. It's a formality to go to the hospital now to check it's not fractured or anything.
"It looks like I've got a terminator eye now. It's unfortunate but I'll be back. I thought I was doing well in there."
Joyce gave credit to Zhang for the manner of victory, explaining: "I couldn't get away from his straight left. He kept on nailing me in the eye and it swelled up my eye.
"That's what happens when you take risks. Sometimes it doesn't go your way, which is it's annoying. I thought I'd reach a victory here and it's just disappointing I didn't.
Asked about a rematch, he was non-committal.
"We're going to discuss it," he said. "I could have one in between. I'm just going to decide. I'm going to have some time off and reflect and watch the tape back and see where I went wrong."