Tony Bellew calls on officials to explain themselves after controversial Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall decision and says ‘careers being ruined’

Tony Bellew was an unhappy spectator following the controversial ending to Jack Catterall and Josh Taylor's fight.

The former cruiserweight champion took to Twitter to vent his frustration at the officials who he said 'need to explain themselves' after fights.

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On Saturday night in Glasgow, Taylor retained his super-lightweight world titles in extremely disputable circumstances, winning via split decision.

The challenger, Catterall, scored a knockdown, but did not get the credit from the judges who instead awarded the champion the victory.

Following the contest, 'El Gato' took to social media to brand the decision a 'load of s***'.

In an Instagram story, he then added: "Heart broke,” before writing in a separate post.

"You know what hurts the most, 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 of been waking up with all of the belts. Fifteen months out the ring, they all wrote me off. F*** me in every way possible for over two years, finally got the fight. Sacrificed everything to fight one of the top p4p ranked fighters, gave him a lesson. For what.

"Boxing shame on you. Judges [emoji with middle finger] Dreams stolen."

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Bellew then weighed in with his thoughts and declared that the officials need to come out and explain their decision, rather than the fighters.

"I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again! Officials and Referee’s need to explain themselves after the fights!" He said on Twitter.

"We get punched in the head for 36mins and then get a camera shoved in our face and asked to explain our tactics and thoughts! WHY CAN’T OFFICIALS? #TaylorCatterall."

Bellew added: "EVERY official should be held ACCOUNTABLE when put in a position to judge or referee something! There is no excuse for this to happen!

"There is too many careers being ruined! Last night and many other nights a young athlete who has dedicated his WHOLE life is being robbed!"

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talkSPORT host Adam Catterall was ringside for the fight and scored it very different and launched into a fiery rant about how judges need to be held to account as they are ‘wrecking careers’.

He said: “I scored that fight, and this is being incredibly conservative. You have to understand that I’m ringside, I’m in the atmosphere, it’s pro-Josh Taylor in this arena and everyone is screaming every time he threw a shot.

“When you are a judge, and you are professional, you have got to take all of that into consideration, keep your head in a fridge and judge what you see.

“I scored that, and being pro-Josh Taylor, 114-111 in favour of Jack Catterall. We had a points deduction in there and there was a knockdown too.

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“There’s people ringside who had it 115-110, some even had it wider saying they could only give three rounds to the undisputed champion.

“Robbery, I don’t use it a lot. There’s rounds in there that are tight, it was an ugly fight to watch. It was not the most pretty of fights, but robbery is doing it a disservice.

“This kid has come up here, boxed the ears off an elite fighter, put him down, done a fantastic job. He’s lived with this for two years, had it pushed back and back, had to delay it as he gave Taylor the opportunity to unify the belts with Ramirez last year and for him to come here and have that done to him… it’s one of the worst robberies I’ve seen up close and in person.

“It has to be the point where the British Boxing Board of Control are holding judges for account. You are wrecking people’s careers, you are wrecking people’s earning potentials.

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“What does Jack Catterall do now? Josh Taylor has just gone on TV and said ‘I’m moving up in weight now, there’s no need for a rematch’.

“What does he do now?”