Tony Bellew was not impressed with the scoring of Jack Catterall’s win over Josh Taylor.
Catterall was denied glory in controversial fashion in his opening meeting with Taylor in 2022, and the pair ran it back at the First Direct Arena in Leeds on Saturday night.
The pair put on a thrilling show and ‘El Gato’ had his hand raised in a revenge victory, with the officials scoring the contest at 117-111, 117-111, and 116-113 in his favour.
It was an extremely wide margin, with the boxing world stunned by quite how dominant they judged Catterall to have been given the close nature of the encounter.
Bellew slammed the scoring of the clash, fuming on the DAZN broadcast: “The judges are gonna cloud Catterall’s moment.
“I had it a really close fight. That 117-111 twice is a disgrace. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
“Just because wrong was done to Catterall two years ago, doesn’t make it right to do that to Taylor tonight.”
The official scorecards have since been released, with ‘El Gato’ scored to be in the ascendancy throughout.
Catterall was handed the opening five and six rounds on two of the judges scorecards and was viewed to be in control early on.
Judge Kieran McCann viewed the contest as a back and forth affair from the seventh round onwards, although Mark Bates scored the final four periods in Catterall’s favour.
The closer 116-113 scorecard from Lee Every appeared to be a more appreciated score, although it was viewed much closer by many boxing experts.
One was not at all impressed with the scoring was Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who clambered in the ring after the event to criticise the decision.
He claimed: “Those scorecards were a disgrace, an absolute disgrace.
“I really feel sorry for Josh, I thought he won the fight. Those scorecards were ridiculous.
“I will never, ever allow an American fighter to come here with the British Board scoring the fight. Those scores were ridiculous.”
Catterall believed he did enough to pick up the win, and was delighted to have settled their bitter feud.
He said in his post-fight interview: “It’s bittersweet tonight. No world titles, [but] I won the fight. We can close that chapter with Josh Taylor.
“Listen, I believe I won the fight, I took more risks this time. Josh is an elite operator.
“I boxed smart. Even in the second half of the fight, the rounds when I was more reserved, I was controlling the pace.
“It was a fight of two halves, but I still believe: The rounds that I won, I won clearly.
“None of it’s personal, we’ve shared 24 rounds together now, so respect to Josh.”