DELFINE PERSOON SAID she is preparing to lodge an official appeal against her dramatic defeat to Katie Taylor at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
Judges scored the bout 95-95, 96-94, 96-94 in the Bray native’s favour, with Taylor completing her dream of becoming undisputed lightweight champion less than three years on from turning professional.
Speaking in the wake of her controversial defeat, Persoon admitted she should have tried to knock Taylor out when she had the chance, but stated that she would be contesting her majority-decision defeat.
“Yes we will file a claim,” she said speaking to Belgian publication Sudpresse. “Even if it will probably not help anything.
“We were prevented from writing a 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.”
The 34-year-old admitted she was not hopeful of a positive decision coming her way, but would prepare a thorough argument which would present a case that Saturday’s fight should have been awarded in her favour.
“What we will do now is of course make complaint,” she added. “But without much hope because the weight of the Belgian boxing does not weigh heavy in the instances.
“But with my coach we will quietly analyse this fight sequence by sequence, to have all the arguments to present an unassailable file.
“I said before I left for New York that if I did not win by KO the judges would never give me the victory — and that’s exactly what happened.
“I should have finished before the limit. I was very close to getting there in the last round.”
Taylor, who is open to a rematch, said unifying all four lightweight belts had been a “dream come true” for her in New York on Saturday, but Persoon said she would not like to win in the manner of the Irish boxer.
“By the way, I wouldn’t want to be like her,” Persoon said.
“Winning that way — okay, officially she is the winner, but if I would watch the match again in her case I wouldn’t want to go on living like that either. [I would] rather lose it unjustly than win unjustly.”
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