New IBF bantamweight world champion Ryan Burnett said he was initially afraid that the belt was going to be "taken away" from him when it was announced that his fight with Lee Haskins had been scored as a split decision.
Burnett thoroughly dominated his English opponent Lee Haskins, knocking him down twice en route to becoming Ireland's only current reigning champion.
The Odyssey Arena crowd was stunned when it was announced that the verdict was a split decision. The curious score-keeping was somewhat forgotten in the afterglow of Burnett's triumph.
But it subsequently emerged that there was a glaring disparity between the judges, with two officials scoring it 119-107 to Burnett, with the other calling the fight 118-108 in favour of his opponent.
Fight promoter Eddie Hearn offered the theory that the US judge Clark Sammartino had mixed up the two fighters, saying, "his scorecard was excellent; it was just the wrong way around."
The theory was confirmed by the International Boxing Federation in a statement last night.
The IBF announced that Judge Sammartino had awarded his scores to the incorrect fighter and that "the bout was declared a split decision when it should have been ruled a unanimous decision in favour of Burnett."
Speaking to RTÉ 2fm's Game On, Burnett said he was initially alarmed to learn that the verdict was a split decision.
"I was relieved because they said it was a split decision and for a second I thought they were going to take it away from me.
"But when they announced me, there was a sense of relief.
Burnett admitted that he had never encountered a situation like that before, but insisted he harboured no bad will towards the judge or the organisation. He said he accepted it as a simple mistake.
"No, I've never come across a situation like that in boxing before. Especially at the highest level there is. It's very unusual.
"Listen these things happen. It's just about dealing with it and moving on. That's exactly what the IBF will do. At the end of the day it was all straightened out," he said.
Burnett said his ambition does not end with becoming the world champion and that he hopes to become a "great" world champion.
"I'm happy to be world champion but I'm not satisfied with being a world champion. I want to go on being a great world champion," he commented.
Burnett fought in the same boxing club as Carl Frampton and Paddy Barnes and says he drew inspiration from watching those fighters at close quarters.
"I was always training alongside Carl Frampton and Paddy Barnes. They were in the same club as me and were a couple of years older than me. I always had my eye on those two because they were doing the things that I was about to do. To be able to watch them was always a great inspiration for me growing up."
