Dmitry Bivol has called for a rematch after his narrow, controversial loss to Artur Beterbiev.

Beterbiev defeated Bivol with a majority decision and won the undisputed world light heavyweight championship after 12 rounds of boxing at the highest level.

With this result, Beterbiev unified Bivol's WBA title with the IBF, WBO and WBC championships he already held.

“I feel emotionally empty now,” Bivol said Sky Sports afterward. “I just went to the ring to win this fight, but I don’t have my belt.”

Bivol's promoter Eddie Hearn believes his fighter deserves this decision.

“Dmitry Bivol should be undisputed champion,” Hearn said Sky Sports. “He deserves it. It was a masterclass in boxing.”

“You don’t deserve to work your whole life to get to this moment, to achieve such an achievement and then lose it again.”

“Giving Dmitry Bivol four rounds of this 12-round fight – that judge should never work again.”

Hearn added: “No disrespect to Beterbiev because he is a great fighter and I loved that fight, it was like the ultimate boxing match. I was just fascinated by it.”

“They told him in the tenth round on the show, 'You have to knock him out to win this fight'.”

“So let’s see the rematch.”

Bivol also demanded a rematch. “If I have that chance, I would obviously like to fight again,” he said.

However, since he was defeated for the first time in his professional career, he did not want to elaborate on the outcome of Saturday's fight. “I don’t think about whether I won or lost,” Bivol said. “I have to do everything perfectly.

“From my side, I try to make everything perfect, everything great. But I didn’t make it.”

“I’m trying to forget it and move on now.”

Options for the undisputed champion

Beterbiev, newly crowned undisputed 175-pound world champion, will have options.

Carl Moretti of Top Rank, Beterbiev's promoter, said Sky Sports: “It was a close fight. Just because the fights are close doesn’t mean they’re robberies.”

“I have no problem with a rematch, I think it sells great, we can do it again. There are other options. There are other light heavyweights out there.”

In a playful reference to Canelo Alvarez, the superstar who lost to Bivol in a previous foray into light heavyweight, Moretti added: “There's this Mexican kid at 168 pounds, he might want to try again at 175 pounds to come.”

“I don’t think you can decide in this moment what comes next, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t options.”

Replays of Fabio Wardley's stunning rematch with Frazer Clarke in the epic Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol Bill are playing Sky Sports box office on Sunday at 6 p.m. Book replays of Wardley vs. Clarke 2 and Beterbiev vs. Bivol now!