By Luis Sandoval

Shawn Porter suffered the first defeat of his career and lost his IBF Welterweight title to visiting Kell Brook last night at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA. The contest was rough and many felt that Brook did a bit too much holding during the fight.

Father and trainer Kenny Porter felt his son gave a great effort but the constant holding by Brook was a real problem.

“I can’t agree with the decision. I’m a fighter. I know what it feels like to fight. I know what it feels like to hold and I saw so much holding that my fighter wasn’t able to really box. I told him to go to the inside, work, get the body shots off. I saw him get them off but I’m under the estimation that we’re working but we didn’t get credit for it” said Kenny Porter.

Team Porter also felt referee Pat Russell should’ve issued warning or deducted points from Brook to deter him from locking them up. Kenny informs that after a while, the state commission even told them to stop bringing up the holding to the referee.

“We were not happy with the refereeing and we kept saying repeatedly ‘hey, he’s holding ref’.  But no points or nothing was taken away from him. Then we were warned by the commission ‘hey, get off the referee’. So we were told not to even tell the referee for him to stop holding anymore. And that was our complaint and I think that was a complaint of a lot of people that were watching,” Kenny Porter would tell BoxingScene.

It’s a tough loss for Porter who was coming off a strong and impressive performance over Paulie Malignaggi. The plan now is to regroup and hopefully secure a rematch.

The decision didn’t sit well with Team Porter and they feel the holding was the main reason Brook was victorious.

“So you get the decision but did you get the decision because you locked us up and held us all night? Or did you get the decision because you were literally able to control us with your hands? I don’t think he controlled us with his hands as much as he controlled us by holding us”.

You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter & Instagram @Truewest007