Ronald Ellis disputed the decision by his fight's referee to stop his contest with David Benavidez on Saturday night.
Benavidez secured an 11th round victory over Ellis to claim their WBC super middleweight eliminator, in a display that had him as the clear winner even before referee Johnny Callas stepped in to call time on the fight.
The 24-year-old fighter maintained his perfect record, and added another KO to his record, now 24-0, 21 KOs. He has previously held two super middleweight belts, and is now on course to challenge for another, after losing one belt due to testing positive for cocaine.
31-year-old Ellis was on the back foot for much of the fight, but did not believe the referee should have intervened.
“I could have popped the jab and controlled things a little bit more and not let him smother me,” said Ellis after the fight.
“Hell yeah, I wanted to finish. I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction. I could have moved a little bit more and not taken so many shots to the head. Hats off to him. He did what he had to do. He never hurt me, that’s the funny thing. I took a lot of shots but he didn’t damage me or have me super hurt. I never thought about quitting.”
Benavidez has told DAZN that following this fight, he wants to take on Jermall Charlo, Canelo Alvarez or Caleb Plant.