Corley says that McCloskey should have been allowed to continue, but he would have still knocked him out.

By Jonny Stapleton

Demarcus Corley claims his stoppage of Paul McCloskey was premature on Saturday night.

Chop Chop landed a right hand that forced an impromptu Elvis style leg wobble from McCloskey in the eight round. The referee jumped in separated the pair and waited at least 10 seconds before stopping the bout.

The Irish star looked rattled, but the former three time world champion felt McCloskey was ok to fight on.

The American 37 year old revealed McCloskey called his bluff on a number of occasions throughout their top of the bill clash and felt there could have been an element of play acting in the Derry fighters reaction.

Indeed Corley claims McCloskey has mastered a ‘drunken style’ not seen since Jackie Chan’s cult film, Drunken Master.

“I didn’t think the ref should have stopped it. I mean, he was hurt – but he plays possum. Paul has that drunken style, like ‘I’m hurt but I’m not really so if you come in here I’m going hit you…’ I wasn’t going to take that chance.

“When I saw that he wanted to fight some more I wanted to go get him, but the referee didn’t think so. Eventually I knew I would catch him because he was getting more desperate, he was taking more chances.”