Jack Catterall has slammed the judging in his undisputed super lightweight title fight with Josh Taylor after narrowly missing out on the belts in Glasgow last night.
Catterall outlanded Taylor in all but one round at the OVO Hydro despite coming in as a monstrous underdog, but was left devastated after the judges gave a particularly controversial split decision to the champion.
The Englishman was mandatory challenger for Taylor, who has insisted that the result was fair, and boxed impressively over 12 rounds only to lose on the cards.
And he has slammed the judging decision, which included one 114-111 card after both men had a point deducted, in a tweet saying: "What a load of s***!"
Catterall then posted a more detailed and heartfelt message, saying on Instagram that he had intended to win the belts for his family and hometown.
Boxxer promoter Ben Shalom slammed the decision as "embarrassing", and it is the latest in a string of controversial British judging decisions.
"You know what hurts the most," Catterall said in a message to his 56,000+ followers. "It wasn’t for me I done all of this for my family my team my town and country.
"My baby girl and misses, our future. Today I should have been waking up with all of the belts.
"15 months out the ring, they all wrote me off. F***ed me in every way possible for over two years, finally got the fight.
"Sacrificed everything to fight one of the top pound-for-pound ranked fighters, gave him a lesson. For what.
"Boxing shame on you. Judges [middle finger]. Dreams stolen."
Catterall's coach Nigel Travis added in a later tweet that the decision was made by "incompetent" judges, with hundreds of fans seemingly in agreement.
Travis was by Catterall's side throughout his career, and was part of his decision to accept a step aside deal from his mandatory challenge to allow Taylor to fight Jose Ramirez for the undisputed title last year.
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And he was also left in shock by the result, saying: "There are no words I can say to express my disgust at what happened last night.
"Jack Catterall clearly won and should be the undisputed world champion but because of incompetent judges, he’s not.
"It’s f***in' embarrassing how our sport destroys itself. F*** Off."
Despite Shalom, who was heavily involved in the UK-based Top Rank show, insisting that there should be a rematch, it appears that Taylor will instead move up to welterweight.
He will likely search out a super-fight with welterweight kingpin Terence Crawford, after disagreeing with many fans and experts about how egregious the scoring was.
Both he and Catterall had points removed for infractions during the bout, but it was still believed that he had done enough to take a decision win in the champion's home country.
The pair have shared an heated rivalry in the build-up to the fight, and there appears to still be no love lost between the two after Taylor's take on the decision.
