LOS ANGELES, Oct 21: Bernard Hopkins has regained his World Boxing Council light heavyweight title after WBC officials ruled his controversial loss to Chad Dawson should have been a technical draw.

Hopkins had quickly lodged an appeal with California boxing authorities over the outcome of the fight on Saturday, in which Dawson was awarded a technical knockout in the second round.

It marked the first time Hopkins was stopped inside the distance in his 23-year career.

In a statement posted on the WBC website on Thursday, the sanctioning body’s president, Jose Sulaiman, said the WBC “respects and cannot intervene in the decisions of the boxing commissions where the fights happen, but it does intervene in regards of the recognition of a WBC title of the world.”

And the WBC board of governors, having seen video of the fight and examined post-fight medical records, “unanimously declared a Technical Draw on the fight; therefore, Bernard Hopkins is still the WBC light heavyweight champion of the world.”

The fight had ended in bizarre fashion after Dawson grabbed a leaning Hopkins by the leg, lifted him up and slammed him to the canvas in the second round.

Hopkins, 46, suffered a dislocation of the joint connecting his left shoulder and collarbone and could not continue, but referee Pat Russell awarded Dawson the victory by TKO rather than rule Dawson’s move a foul.

Officials of the WBC, which is based in Mexico, found that Dawson’s action “reflects a clear intentional lifting the body followed with a push by Dawson to Hopkins that made him fall on his left side with part of his body out of the ropes.”—AFP