Eddie Hearn has called for the introduction of VAR into British boxing after video replays came to the rescue of the WBC flyweight champion Charlie Edwards.

In one of the more bizarre incidents seen in a UK ring, Edwards was stopped in the third round by Julio César Martínez, the result announced, and the post-match interviews conducted – only for the fight to be then declared a no contest when the big screen showed Martínez had thumped the British fighter with a late and illegal blow when he was on the floor.

That led to the WBC president, Mauricio Sulaiman, reversing the decision in the ring – much to the delight of the 18,000 crowd and Edwards. Afterwards Hearn urged the British Boxing Board of Control to change its rules so that VAR could be used in fights it sanctions.

“The WBC’s instant replay system, which has been used quite a bit now, is not allowed by the British Boxing Board of Control,” Hearn said. “But when you’ve got 12 screens that we put up around the thing now, you can’t ignore it – so it was absolutely 100% the right thing to do for Mauricio to reverse the decision.”

When asked whether he was in favour of VAR for boxing, Hearn said: “Yes, absolutely. What’s the downside? There is none. It’s not as if it is going to slow the game down. That’s the problem that people talk about with football and cricket. There’s this big controversy. He can’t get up. So let’s look at it. They look at it very quickly, and they’ll rule on it very quickly.”

Hearn also insisted Luke Campbell, who was taken to hospital as a precaution after losing an epic fight against Vasiliy Lomachenko, the WBA, WBC and WBO lightweight champion, was good enough to win a world title.

“Sometimes in defeat, your stock rises considerably,” Hearn said. “And that’s happened with Luke. He’s like a hero and the crowds love the fact that you’re crippled to the body, you’re on one knee, and you don’t want to go down and when you do you get up. And, you know, he didn’t need to do that, really. At times in the fight, he could have been excused for saying ‘that’s enough’. But even the last round he was always trying to win the fight.”

Hearn predicted Lomachenko would unify the lightweight title early next year and then relinquish the belts – allowing Campbell a third shot at a title. “I don’t want Luke to fight Lomachenko again so we’ve got to see if we can get in position to challenge for a vacant belt,” he said.