BOXING/WBC World heavyweight title fight: In the world's gambling capital, a city built on the back of so many broken dreams, Danny Williams's mission to win the world heavyweight title ended in a painful, humiliating and bloody defeat at the Mandalay Bay Hotel where he was utterly outclassed by Vitali Klitschko before being stopped in the eighth round.

As Williams was taken to hospital for a precautionary brain scan, after being dumped on the canvas four times by the Ukrainian champion - who also finished in hospital with a hand injury - his manager Frank Warren delivered a damning indictment of his fighter's performance by saying Williams had been so inadequate and the beating so bad that he should consider retirement.

"Sometimes fighters can be too brave for their own good," said Warren. "He took a lot of punishment. Danny wasn't able to put into practice anything that he had been doing in the gym.

"He was supposed to use lots of head movement to get close and work inside but he got caught in the first round and stood off. That allowed Klitschko to do more or less what he wanted. It wasn't much more than target practice.

"Klitschko is robotic and I believe he is beatable but if you give him the space to work he is a hard man to fight. As for the future, Danny has made money for his family and is secure.

"Maybe he should think about calling it a day."

However Williams's initial reaction was the carry on fighting. "I'm going to regroup and enjoy my family for a bit," he said, "and then get back to some hard training."

Williams (31), who was paid £1 million for the fight, had earned his shot at Klitschko's World Boxing Council title through his four-round destruction of Mike Tyson in July, and his self-confidence persuaded many followers to support him in the Las Vegas casinos.

The price against a Williams victory was as low as 5-2 even though the reality was quickly apparent that he never had any more than a puncher's chance.

The British fans who urged him on with chants of "Danny, Danny" were soon silenced as Williams suffered a nightmare in the opening round. He was floored by a right hook and repeatedly rocked before trudging back to his corner with blood seeping from a deeply slit right eyelid.

Klitschko (33), is hardly a beautiful boxer, with his clumsy footwork and upright style, but at the moment he is surely the world's best and he proceeded to deliver a boxing lesson to his disorientated challenger, spearing him with long-range attacks that exposed Williams' poor defence and baffling lack of mobility.

"He was a lot more awkward than I anticipated," said a disconsolate Williams afterwards. "He didn't hit as hard as Mike Tyson but he hit me more often and more consistently. He was just too good.

"To say I got a bit of a battering is an under-statement," he added. "I tried my best, but I just didn't have it on the night, Klitschko boxed a great fight.

"I needed stitches over my eye and I also thought I had dislocated my shoulder but the shoulder is alright," said Williams.

"I also had a brain scan but I've been released and everything's okay. I'm disappointed because I wasn't here to make up the numbers."

Williams also questioned the referee's decision to halt the fight, but in reality the hammering might easily have been drawn to a halt earlier.

A left hook brought a second knockdown in the third round and an exhausted Williams went down again in the seventh.

"You can have a big heart," said the watching former champion Lennox Lewis when asked about Williams's bravery, "but it's not going to help you win the fight and it's not going to help you not to get hurt. My game plan when I fought Klitschko was to bring it to him and force him back when his pace dropped after five rounds. Danny never did it.

"I think he had a serious disadvantage going into the fight carrying all that weight (19st 4lb). When you are a lot smaller, as Danny is in terms of height and reach, you have to be able to use your speed."

Williams though denied that the extra weight he was carrying, designed to bolster his stamina, had been a problem.

"I was only five pounds heavier than for the Tyson fight," he said. "If I had lost more weight I probably would not have got past the first round because he threw a lot of leather."

No amount of courage could save Williams by the eighth and his corner should have ended his suffering before the combination of a right uppercut, a straight left and a right cross put him down again. Even then, still desperate in pursuit of impossible glory, Williams hauled himself to his feet before the referee Jay Nady called a merciful halt.

Celebratory orange confetti fluttered from above the ring, the colour of the Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko's democratic party. Klitschko is a high-profile spokesman for Yushchenko and had briefly considered postponing the fight because of the unrest in the country before being persuaded to go through it for the sake of his countrymen.

"I want to say thank you to everyone in the Ukraine who fights for democracy, and for the future and our children," he told television viewers. "Danny Williams is a very hard puncher. A couple of times he punched me very hard. It's amazing he took so many punches and I have a big respect for him.

"For me it is very important, the future of my government, and I give my best, do what I can," he added. "I will be in Ukraine for the presidential election."

Lewis faced inevitable questions about an unlikely return, but Klitschko is now accepted as the world number one and could be steered towards a title defence against Hasim Rahman, the American who had a surprise knockout win over Lewis in South Africa three years ago.

Rahman's promoter Don King said: "I think Rahman beats Klitschko, but whatever happens I guarantee he will hit Klitschko properly at some stage, unlike Williams who was useless. There was no buzz here. Right now we are playing with ourselves. This sport needs rejuvenation."

Klitschko sat in a hotel bar until the early hours, surrounded by well-wishers. Perhaps the heavyweight division still needs the Don King touch but, for now, the Ukrainian was content to reflect on a fight that for him, if not for Williams, the fight had gone exactly according to plan.