People from the world of boxing have slammed Josh Taylor's controversial win over Jack Catterall.
The Scottish fighter was awarded the fight via split-decision after a scrappy and untidy 12 rounds which kept referee Marcus McDonnell busy.
Catterall, who put Taylor down in the eighth round, celebrated at the end and there was widespread surprise when the judges scored it 113-112 in favour of the Englishman with the other two judges giving it 114-111 and 113-112 to the 31-year-old champion who now has a 19-0-0 record but the challenger, handed his first defeat, will wonder why.
The decision means Taylor retains his WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO light-welterweight titles and he now looks set to move up in weight class.
Former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton was among those to take to social media to criticise the result.
He said: "I love Josh. I love Jack. But the wrong man got his hand raised."
Fellow Belfast man Caoimhin Agyarko commented: "Honestly have lost all respect for boxing. All 3 judges need sacked and never be allowed to judge a fight again.
"@jack_catt93 can hold his head very high because he should be champion."
Dillian Whyte tweeted: "Disgusting."
Catterall departed the arena straight after the fight and did not attend the pre-fight press conference.
Tweeting a short time later, he said: "What a load of s***!"
Retweeting his comment, recently crowned WBO female junior-middleweight champion Natasha Jonas stated: "The real ones know, but that still isnt good enough. I'm absolutely gutted for you. I'm so sorry you didn't get your moment of glory."
Catterall’s trainer described Taylor’s win as “disgusting”.
Jamie Moore said: “He stepped aside on the promise that he would get the opportunity, he gets the opportunity and he performs like that, beats the champion in his own backyard, and gets absolutely robbed.
“So think about the message it sends to people? My son is 16 and getting into boxing.
“He’ll be looking at that and thinking why should I get into boxing?
“The moment you work for, for all your life, to get crowned a world champion after a performance like that, is snatched away from you. It’s disgusting.
“Jack is absolutely heartbroken.”
But Taylor thought he had done enough to keep his belts.
He said: “100 percent. I started slow as I tried to get my timing. I caught him with the bigger shots .
“He tried to spoil, he leaned in a lot and there was a clash of heads.
“I’m not going to lie, he caught me with a couple of good shots as well.
“It wasn’t my best performance. I put a hell of a lot of pressure on myself this week with the homecoming and my first fight here in three years.
“There was a lot of pressure as the big favourite. But I believe I started catching him with bigger shots.
“It wasn’t my best but I thought I got the win, 100 per cent. “
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