Marcus Browne outpoints Radivoje 'Hot Rod' Kalajdzic via controversial split decision

NEW YORK - Marcus Browne, a 2012 Olympian, remained undefeated Saturday at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, but it came amid a firestorm of controversy.

He received the nod from the judges after eight rounds, but he was heavily by his hometown crowd after jumping on the ringpost to celebrate. That's because Radivoje "Hot Rod" Kalajdzic seemed to control the action, scored a big knockdown in Round 6 and appeared to pull the upset.

One judge scored it for Kalajdzic, 76-74, but the other two judges saw it for the favorite, 76-74 and 76-75.

Promoter Lou DiBella was none too pleased.

"Team Kalajdzic is filing a formal protest," DiBella shouted. "There was no knockdown in the first round. No punch landed. In the last round there was contact and both times Browne went down and no knockdowns were called. I'm a big fan of Browne but he held the whole fight."

"When they look at the tape and see nothing landed I hope something will happen."

The phantom knockdown was the difference in the fight. Browne improves to 18-0 with 13 KOs while Kalajdzic is now 21-1 with 14 KOs.

Browne said afterwards he felt he won the fight.

"As a fighter, you know in your heart when you lose and I did not lose this fight," he said. "It should have been unanimous."

(Photo of Browne, right, and Kalajdzic by Elsa/Getty Images)