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Kelly outraged after title decision

22/04/2006

Northern Ireland's Damaen Kelly was left dismayed after losing his European bantamweight title fight with Italian Simone Maludrottu on a unanimous points decision.

The Ulsterman was looking to become the first man from the province to claim two European titles at different weights and he looked to have achieved this after dominating much of the fight.

However, the judges unanimously ruled in the Italian's favour, 118-112 116-115 115-113, to leave Kelly's corner and the crowd at the Andersontown Leisure Centre in Antrim shocked.

"The punch stats said that Kelly landed 155 punches while the Italian landed only 87, so how on earth could he get the decision?" Kelly's manager Tommy Gilmour said.

"That was shameful and it was the biggest robbery I've seen in 35 years of boxing."

The 33-year-old was the dominant fighter for much of the first six rounds, displaying good hand-speed which had left the champion struggling to land any blows.

However, Maludrottu came back into it more in the seventh and began to show his pedigree, which had only seen him beaten once in 21 fights.

After shading the next three rounds, Kelly came back into the fight and by the end of the 12th, was expecting to be given the decision.

However, the judges awarded the fight to Maludrottu to give him his fourth successful title defence.

"I thought I walked it and I thought I was the European bantamweight champion," Kelly said.

Kelly is now expected to demand an immediate rematch.

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