I had a gameplan and I think it worked. It was supposed to take three or four rounds but I caught him with a big body shot very early on and things happened much faster than I expected.

Plenty of people in the media didn't seem so happy, though.

My promoter, Frank Maloney, got a lot of criticism for not putting me up against a tougher opponent. But as far as I'm concerned I am fighting the right people.

All the top fighters have to go through this, it's just I've started my professional career fighting on television.

People like Lee Haskins, the British and Commonwealth super-flyweight champion, who topped the bill in Newport, David Haye and Carl Froch never got seen on television until they were the finished article. It's different with me because I won a medal at the Olympics.

That's fine, I'm not complaining about it, but people need to consider that before they start criticising.

Glenn McCrory was a TV pundit at the fight and he had plenty to say, but he shouldn't forget what it was like for him at the start of his career. I'm sure no one could name his first ten fighters but he went on to be a world champion. I've got to go a slightly different route because I'm more in the spotlight at the start.

Tolstihs has boxed three or four British boxers ranked much higher than me, so he wasn't the mug some people were trying to make out. I just threw everything at him and must have dispirited him a bit with a big body shot. When you get hit like that it takes the wind out of you and takes a while to recover.

After that, I was able to pick him off.

Now that's out of the way I'm going to enjoy my Christmas, and I expect to be back in the ring in early March, probably in Sunderland.

Hopefully my critics will have lightened up a bit by then!