Perhaps the pre-fight shenanigans featuring his promoters offered an omen that Amir Khan's fourth defence of his WBA light-welterweight crown against Paul McCloskey would end in uproar.

Midway through the sixth round referee Luis Pabón made himself truly unpopular by stopping what had been a riveting bout due to an accidental clash of heads that left McCloskey's left eye cut. After the judges's cards were consulted, Khan was declared the unanimous 60-54 winner, which was a fair reflection of the action. But Pabón was about to face the fury of Barry Hearn, the owner of Matchroom, McCloskey's promoter.

After clambering into the ring Hearn shouted at the Puerto Rican official: "You're a fucking disgrace, a fucking disgrace." Later he said: "If I was Khan I'd be ashamed. The referee showed enormous ineptitude. This was a world-title fight. If you see the cut you'd be amazed. It's a nick. It's the worse stoppage I've ever seen."

Hearn has promoted professional boxing since the 1980s. And although his outrage had no material effect on the decision, when McCloskey strolled round the ring shaking his head the sense deepened that he should have been allowed to continue. The European champion said: "I'm numb, I'm really angry, I want a rematch. Obviously Amir was completely knackered after the second round. This is what I've dreamed about all my life and it's been taken away by a doctor and a referee."

Khan was unrepentant. "To be honest if that fight did happen and it went a couple more rounds I think I would have knocked him out. But this is boxing and I think the referee made the right choice to stop the fight," he said.

"I was just getting better and better and catching him with some good combinations. He chose to stop the fight. I would have stayed in the fight and continued. A win's a win; people can say what they want." Would he consider a rematch? "I want to go to bigger things. Why do I have to go back and fight someone like Paul McCloskey? Like I said from day one, he's a European class [and] I'm a world-class fighter." Khan was correct, of course. He could do nothing about Pabón's decision. Despite McCloskey's bravado, the champion was also right to state he had been starting to seriously rock his opponent.

Watched by a raucous arena that included Baroness Warsi, the Conservative party chairman, Ricky Hatton and Alex Reid (the estranged husband of glamour model Katie Price, for the blissfully unaware), each man had entered to a wall of sound.

When the clash started Khan edged the opening round, although it was clear McCloskey was here to fight. While the man from Dungiven in Northern Ireland tried to square the ring off, it was a left-right combination from Khan that was the pick of the action. The challenger, who was unbeaten in all 22 of his professional outings, had his best three minutes of the contest in the third round. The faint grin he wore as he continued to walk and weave towards Khan must have been disconcerting for the champion.

McCloskey fell over in the fourth round but Khan was the clumsier, off-loading too many telegraphed blows, although his class was still present in some sporadic punches that hurt the Irishman. The sixth and final round had Khan nearly putting the Irishman down before he was cut and the boos began.

This all followed on from the farrago created by Khan's own Khan Promotions, Ricky Hatton's Hatton Promotions and Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya's American company. Khan lost around £1.5m when the bout was switched from Sky Box Office to Primetime. But at least he still has his crown.