JIM WATT:

Pickering is not just upset at his performance. He found comments made by Jim Watt during Sky's coverage of the fight hurtful.

“Even though this was the third defence of my European title, all I got from Jim was bad comments. After the second round he was very derogatory. At one point he was talking about Michael Hunter and even said ‘we',” he added.

“He didn't have anything positive to say. If I was boxing cutely I was being too negative, if I came forward I was fighting Hunter's sort of fight. He was itching out of his pants to make negative remarks. It has happened before, like when I beat Brian Carr and Mike Deveney in Scotland. He has never had one good thing to say about me.

“I have never spoken to the guy, so I don't know why he has got such a problem with me. Is it my style, or because I have won a couple of times in his country? I know boxing is not all about coming across as a nice person, but he is a former world champion and in a privileged and powerful position as a commentator, so people will listen to what he has got to say, particularly those who don't understand the sport fully.

“I welcome constructive criticism, I don't mind that at all and I will listen to some of what he said, but I think he was totally over the top. That is why I am coming out and saying these things. I want to say them to him directly and have even had my number passed to him by another Sky presenter, but he hasn't been man enough to call me.

“If you listened to Jim Watt, Michael Hunter is going to be a world champion in 12 months time and I will be dead and buried in the gutter. But we will see, things will come full circle.”