by Luke Furman

Light heavyweight Denis Grachev (12-1-1, 8KOs), who suffered his first career defeat on Saturday night in Montreal, felt he was robbed against hometown hero Lucian Bute. Grachev made a name for himself with an unexpected knockout victory over highly redgarded contender Ismayl Sillakh. He felt Sillakh was a much tougher opponent than Bute, who returned from a knockout loss to Carl Froch.

"I won this fight. I can go to war with anyone. Sillakh was tougher to deal with than Bute. He was more versatile," Grachev said.

Grachev's coach also thought his boxer won the fight.

"We had no choice but to come here, because Denis is not well known. If this fight had taken place in the United States, we would have won, he would never have had this decision. There is a lot of money at stake in a rematch between Bute and Froch. We knew we would not win a decision here," Baruch Ferreira said.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.