Charlie Edwards was knocked out but still retained his WBC flyweight title amid bizarre, controversial circumstances on Saturday night in London.
A VAR instant replay decision saw Julio Cesar Martinez’s KO immediately overturned by the WBC on the undercard of Vasyl Lomachenko vs Luke Campbell.
After a tight opening two rounds, the Mexican challenger badly hurt the British champion and forced him to sink to the canvas.
However, Martinez then hit Edwards again while he was already down and this shot caused him to writhe around in pain, unable to beat the count.
The Mexican initially celebrated amid the Brit’s devastation, though these scenes were shortlived.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman took to the ring and quickly announced that the decision had been overturned by their instant replay team, who few others even knew were in effect.
The fight was instead ruled a ‘no contest’, so Edwards retained his flyweight world title.
Sulaiman added that an immediate rematch would be ordered to settle the dispute once and for all.
