Lowe wants rematch with champ after judges call a draw

Isaac Lowe (right) on the attack against Ryan Walsh in their British featherweight title at the Manchester Arena

But the judges could not separate the pair after 12 rounds of back and forth  action, Marcus McDonnell scoring it 115-114 for Lowe,

Steve Gray 116-114 for Walsh, while Michael Alexander had it dead level at 115-115.

“I think I won the fight by a couple of rounds,” said the unbeaten 24-year-old, who was bidding to become Lancaster and Morecambe’s first professional British champion.

“I stuck to my boxing pretty well and then in the later rounds I matched him at his own game.

“I stood toe-to-toe with him for three rounds and I thought I was winning the exchanges.

“Yes he might have been catching the one or two power shots but I was catching in flurries. I had to grind out those last three rounds to make sure we won it and I thought I’d done it.

“Maybe a couple of rounds in the middle where I slacked off cost me the fight.

“You can look at it from all different angles but I thought I did more than enough to win the fight. It won’t knock me down, I’ll keep my chin up and I want to keep moving on and want the rematch ASAP.”

Norfolk’s Walsh, who at 31 was taking part in his sixth British title fight, admitted post-fight that Lowe had won his respect.

“I spoke to Ryan and he said he’s up for the rematch,” the Morecambe fighter said. “Obviously it has to be a televised show because it’s a big fight and we both want paying sensibly for it.”