By Oisin Doherty

Copyright irishmirror

Lewis Crocker’s coach Billy Nelson has fired back at online comments suggesting that his man shouldn’t have been awarded the win against Paddy Donovan.

Crocker and Donovan went toe-to-toe for 12 rounds at Windsor Park on Saturday evening, with Crocker being handed a split decision win over Limerick man Donovan.

Many felt Donovan had done enough to edge what was a very close fight, a fight which swung in the favour of Belfast star Crocker thanks to two knockdowns in the first portion of the fight.

Those two 10-8 rounds gave Donovan a mountain to climb, and while he dominated large portions of the contest, Crocker did enough in the eyes of the judges to nick a couple of rounds and go home with the World Championship.

Many fans have taken to social media in the past few days to state their belief that Donovan was the true winner of the bout, something which Nelson has strongly refuted.

Responding to former boxer Anthony Fowler – who tweeted during the bout that he thought Donovan was winning – Nelson wrote “f*** him, Lewis won on credit.”

Fowler followed up by posting “F*** me for having an opinion? You told Lewis to change tactics several times as you believed he was losing the rounds or you would have said keep doing what you’re doing, I really like Lewis he comes across a great lad but just don’t think he won that fight,” with Nelson replying “I respect you think he lost, but he never (did).”

After finishing his too-and-fro with Fowler, Nelson replied “Silly boy” to another comment from a fan on social media that claimed Donovan had won the bout.

And “Maybe you just a clown at reading a fight” was his comment to another fan who scored the bout in favour of Donovan.

While many believe Donovan won the contest, it was by no means a robbery. Crocker’s two knockdowns handed him two 10-8 rounds off the bat and essentially gave him a four-point head start with the judges, meaning he only needed to win a handful of the remaining 10 rounds to get the win.

That’s exactly how promoter Eddie Hearn saw it, with the Matchroom boss rubbishing the notion of a robbery when asked about the online discourse after the bout.

“Really difficult to score,” he said, adding that he felt Crocker won the second, sixth and 12th rounds, along with the 10-8 results for the two rounds when Donovan took a standing count.”That’s 114-13 to Lewis Crocker. But the 12th round could have gone either way, the second round was very tight and there were other tight rounds.”I was shocked that a lot of the score zone, where he had a couple of fighters, had Donovan up by a few after nine or 10 and I’m thinking, I can’t see how that’s actually physically possible.

“Donovan did win a lot of rounds – but after the two knockdowns, it’s a really tough fight to win from there. If he (Crocker) lost by a point, he certainly wouldn’t be saying this is a joke. He would say, ‘well, I nicked it, but I understand it can go either way’. So, a point either way. Maybe I can see Paddy Donovan by a point.

“It’s just a lot of those rounds, not a lot happened. If you like the more eye-catching shots, they come from Lewis Crocker. Paddy boxed really well. He’s a great fighter. But to be honest, when I got in the ring, I had absolutely no idea (who won).”