A protest has now been filed with respect to the March 23rd heavyweight fight, which saw top rated contender Kubrat Pulev stopping Bogdan Dinu in the seventh round in Costa Mesa, California.

According to a report by Steve Kim of ESPN, Dinu has now filed a protest with the California State Athletic Commission - regarding the illegal punch that he was struck with in the early part of the seventh round.

When Dinu went down for the first time, controversy erupted when Pulev was penalized a point when he struck Dinu to the back of the head while the boxer was still down.

Dinu was given five minutes to recover, but he never did.

When the contest resumed, Pulev jumped right on him and dropped him two more times to secure the knockout.

Dinu and his team will likely pursue one of two scenarios - a reversal of the official outcome from a knockout loss to a no-contest or a reversal of the knockout loss to a disqualification of Pulev.

"After the fight, I sat down with Dinu and his team and we contacted the California commission and we have officially filed protest papers and requested a hearing before the California commission," Dinu's promoter, Greg Cohen, said to ESPN.

CSAC executive director Andy Foster confirmed that the commission will grant their request and discuss the protest during their mid-May meeting.

It's going to be difficult to determine if the illegal punch was the deciding factor in Dinu's eventual knockout - or if he was reeling from one of the earlier punches which created the knockdown.

What happened after that fight has created worldwide headlines for the wrong reasons.

Pulev has come under fire, after he forcibly kissed a female reporter on camera.

The reporter has since hired a high profile attorney and claims the boxer also grabbed her backside at a post-fight party.

Because of the post-fight incident, the CSAC has suspended Pulev - and they will keep him under suspension until he appears before them.