The Northern Irishman, 25, is expected to make the first defence of his title back in Belfast before the year's end despite suffering a significant cut over his right eye after an accidental clash of heads.

He excelled in beating Bristol's 33-year-old Haskins more convincingly than any other, but Hearn explained: "Apparently the judge asked one of the photographers, 'Which one's Lee Haskins?' and the photographer said 'In the red corner'.

"I think he asked him a couple of times, and I presume he thought, 'The red shorts'.

"But frightening, frightening that your future can be put in the hands of someone like that. I don't mean to be disrespectful because he's an old gentleman and I'm sure he's judged many fights, but that could have gone horribly wrong.

"He scored two 10-8 rounds to Haskins! His scorecard was excellent: it was just the wrong way around. He's 80-odd; I've never seen anything like it.

"I presume the split decision will be revoked. It'll be a unanimous decision, it must be. But I've never seen anything like it."

Burnett, long considered Northern Ireland's long-term successor to Carl Frampton, also emulated Wayne McCullough, another world champion, by winning world honours in his 17th fight, and he said: Honestly, things like that shouldn't be happening, especially at world level, but it did, and it is what it is.

"Absolutely not (it won't bother me if the record always reads as a split decision).

"I almost fainted in the ring. I thought, 'They're going to take it off me here'. Thank God the decision went in the right direction."

Referencing a period he was once forced to live with his dad in a car, he said: "I'll need to go into a quiet room and sit and think to myself, it hasn't soaked in yet. This is a lifetime achievement, I've worked so hard for this. Even when things were going really bad for me, I always told myself that things were going to be okay.

"'Keep going and one day you'll get there'. Thank God, I've done it, I'm here. I'm world champion, I've nothing left to say."

His success also means Adam Booth has led three fighters to world titles, and the trainer insisted the achievement even surpassed David Haye becoming the world heavyweight champion.

"Nothing I've done before tops this," said the trainer, who also works with former WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee.

"I've been fortunate enough to have three world champions now. The special thing about this one is that he only had 16 fights going into this. It makes me realise just how good he could be: he's probably 60 percent of where he's going to end up."