After a captivating brawl in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, Delfine Persoon is refusing to lie down and accept defeat. The Belgian, who was seen leaving the ring in tears, has revealed she intends on lodging on official complaint.
After the fight went the distance, the judges' scorecards awarded Katie Taylor a majority decision victory - 95-95, 96-94, 96-94 - though many neutrals felt the Belgian underdog had done enough to give the Irish fighter her first professional career loss.
Speaking to Belgian-based media outlet Sudpresse, Persoon said:
We will file a claim. Even if it probably will not help anything. We were prevented from writing a big and beautiful page in the history of boxing. Today everyone has seen and everyone knows that is a shame.
But who will remember it again in a few years, reading my record where this championship will appear in the column of my defeats?
In my eyes, it's not a defeat. I will give myself one or two weeks of reflection to decide what to do next. For many, I had no chance. But I proved the opposite.
Shortly after Saturday night's victory, Hearn, Taylor's promoter, told Balls.ie that his fighter was open to a rematch.
Hearn claimed: "She said to me, 'If there’s any doubt that I didn’t win the fight we’ve got to do it again.' She asked me, I told her that I had it a draw, and she turned around and said that we’ve got to do it again."
Meanwhile, Brian Peters, her manager, wasn't so keen on the idea.
We're always be open to anything. There are so many different factors that have to be taken into consideration. We will look at a rematch sure.
Would we look at it straight away? Look, we are going to do whatever suits us. So far we have done pretty good. So we will stick with our plans.
