By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn was complaining last Saturday night in the aftermath of IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington’s 12 round majority decision loss to Luis Alberto Lopez at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England.

Hearn thinks Lopez (27-2, 15 KOs) should have been penalized for the holding he did in the second half of the fight, and he feels that Warrington should have won by a set of 115-113 scores.

Interestingly, Hearn did not mention Warrington’s flagrant fouling, with his headbutting, rabbit punching, shouldering, and punches to the backside of the 29-year-old Lopez.

With the way that Warrington went whole hog with the fouling ing in the second half of the fight, you would think that Hearn would have mentioned this because he was ripe for being disqualified. At the minimum, you can argue that Warrington should have been penalized several times over.

The scores were 115-113, 115-113 for Lopez, and 114-114. There would have been a massive uproar if the judges had given Warrington the victory.

Hearn should be happy that the judges got it right because there would have been an enormous backlash if Warrington had won. It wouldn’t have just been Warrington that was dumped on by fans. They would have leveled their criticism at Hearn, Matchroom Boxing, and the judges.

“I thought it was a great high-level fight. It was scrappy, and it was a fight of two halves; it could have gone either way,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing UK about last Saturday’s fight between IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington and Luis Alberto Lopez.

“I love boxing. It was a disaster start [for Warrington]. After six rounds, it was 5-1 or 4-2 [in favor of Lopez]. From there, I thought Josh Warrington wins at least four of the six rounds. But I thought with his finish, ‘We might just have edged this.’

“114-114, I can see. 115-113, I can see either way, really. I felt Lopez could have had a point deducted for the holding. He held a lot. I know they complained about Josh’s head, but Lopez was jumping in as well. It was a very close fight.

“That’s down to him and his family,” said Hearn when asked ‘where does Warrington go from here?’ “Josh Warrington is still an elite featherweight. It wasn’t a performance that says he’s deteriorating. He just fought a tricky, awkward fighter.

“I’d still like to deliver that fight [Leo Santa Cruz] because I still think he deserves it, and so does his fans. I’d also like to see if [Leigh] Wood gets through [Mauricio] Lara and doing that fight in the City Ground [Nottingham, England], but we’ll have to see. It was a tough fight. The first six rounds were tough.

“Leigh Wood wants to fight Mauricio Lara, which is good for us or all of us, but it’s a very, very tough fight. But I need to make sure that fight gets dealt with, and then we’ll see what’s next for Josh,” said Hearn.