Delfine Persoon’s decision to appeal Katie Taylor victory the right thing to do

This is exactly what the Persoon camp need to do right now.

Dethroned WBO lightweight champion Delfine Persoon has stated her team's intention to officially appeal her controversial defeat to Katie Taylor. Saturday night at Madison Square Garden saw Taylor become undisputed (four-belt) world champion after taking a split decision over Persoon. One judge scored the 10-round bout a 95-95 draw while the other two scored it 96-94 in Taylor's favour. Persoon was disgusted with the decision and left the ring as Taylor was conducting her post-fight interview. Her first interview came the following morning with Belgian outlet Sporza, and she bemoaned the fact that she did not go for the knock-out blow, in the final rounds, when she had openings. https://www.sportsjoe.ie/boxing/delfine-persoon-interview-202104 Having had further time to ruminate on only her second professional loss, Persoon confirmed to Sudpresse that her team would be analysing the fight and preparing a document to appeal the decision.

"In my eyes it's not a defeat. What we will do now is of course make complaint. "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."

While many ex-boxers (Matthew Macklin, Carl Frampton and Carl Froch included) and journalists believe Persoon was hard done by, a rematch against Taylor looks the safer bet to reclaim her belt. Any analysis of the fight would be countered by the Taylor camp, with their own slant, and the Compubox stats show that the Bray native landed more 'power punches' (93 to 83). Such an appeal would have little chance of success as there was nothing glaring about the final scorecards. 34-year-old Persoon, a policewoman by trade, did not have an automatic rematch clause in her fight contract. That means her best hope of trading with Taylor again is to keep this fight, and the decision, in the news and put as much public pressure on the undisputed champ as possible. Taylor herself has already stated that she is open for a rematch but Matchroom, her promoters, may be eager to move to on to more lucrative targets. Raising and sustaining a clamour is Persoon's best option right now so talk of an appeal, whether it arrives or not, is exactly what she should be putting out there.