Palms Resort & Casino, Las vegas - The Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV co-main event saw a bizarre ending to what was to be a cruiserweight elimination bout. Detroit southpaw Isiah Thomas (15-0, 6 KOs) was winning the fight on all three judges' scorecards through round three when Russian power-puncher Murat "Iron" Gassiev (22-0, 16 KOs) threw accidental late blows to Thomas' head after the bell.

The punches forced referee Jay Nady to make the tough call that the punches "diminished the value" of Thomas' ability to continue. As the fight had not yet gone four rounds, unified rules state that the fight does not go to the scorecards, thus ruling it a no contest.

Thomas felt he would have won if not for the late blow.

"I would have won this fight, he fouled me and they stopped it," Thomas said.

Gassiev felt he was starting to do damage and would have ended up scoring a knockout victory.

"I felt very good for the three rounds , I was cutting off the ring and hurting him." I'm confident that I would have stopped him,"