Thomas Whittaker-Hart 'paid the price' for a poor performance after he lost his unbeaten record against Mickey Ellison on Saturday night.
Ellison retained his Central Area light-heavyweight title after securing a narrow decision victory following ten rounds of intense boxing at Wembley Arena.
Coming into the fight on the back of two victories this calendar year, Whittaker-Hart was hurt near the end of the fourth round and also had to deal with a nasty cut.
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However, he stuck at it and despite going toe-to-toe with Ellison for 30 minutes, referee Michael Alexander scored the contest 96-95 in favour of the 32-year-old.
“Gutted. It is a difficult one. I am not even going to take away from the opponent. Thomas just didn’t perform,” Whittaker-Hart’s manager Tony Bellew said post-fight.
“He paid the price for a poor performance. That is just how it goes. Thomas will regroup. He’s got a fantastic training team around him in Joseph McNally and Declan O'Rourke.
“He will regroup and go again. That’s it. Fighters live and learn and it is a harsh lesson, so that’s it and I can’t really stress anymore.
“Where it goes from there besides the fact that he hopefully gets in with him again and rights that wrong because I don’t see many places where there is to go, to be honest.”
When pushed further about a possible rematch, Bellew said: “Why not? I thought it was a close fight and I thought Thomas was the actual better boxer in the fight.
“But he just didn’t open enough and work enough and that was the difference on the night.”
And although Bellew refused to claim that his man won the fight 'hands down' - he doesn't believe there was much between the pair during the bout.
“Like I said, it is a really close fight and I thought the last two rounds were going to get Thomas the nod, but it didn’t get him the nod,” he told IFLTV.
“I know it is an old fashioned saying that you have to rip it away from the champion, but that seemed to be the case tonight.
“And he didn’t really rip it away from him in those last rounds. For me, I had Thomas five each. I couldn't really separate them. And that is me being brutally honest.
“I couldn’t come here and say Thomas won that fight hands down, but that wouldn’t be fair on Ellison. We just see and we go again. Thomas will be back!”
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