Heavyweight Jeamie “TKV” Tshikeva is hoping the British Boxing Board of Control orders a rematch with David Adeleye for the British title after their bout on Saturday ended in controversy.

Adeleye won with a sixth-round stoppage, but Tshikeva was ahead on the cards and only troubled when hit after the referee, Ron Kearny, called break early in the decisive session.

Tshikeva has subsequently watched the contest back, and told BoxingScene his side of the story.

“Both me and Adeleye made mistakes earlier on in the fight, where the referee was giving us a telling off, but he [Kearny] told me if I was to throw a shot when he says break – and he repeated it in the ring, told us backstage – he would take a point off. So, I was trying to obey. The round was getting on. I didn’t want to get a point taken off,” said Tshikeva. “I was trying to obey the referee and his instructions. So, at that point, when we’re in a clinch, he’s only talking to me again, but I ain’t the one holding. Adeleye’s holding my arm. So, he pulls my arm and he says break. At this point, when he says break, you remember I did say that when he says break, step back, don’t throw a punch. So, I thought I was supposed to break. So, I put my arm out to show I’m not holding because he’s only talking to me. But as I was going to turn, he [Adeleye] threw a shot that I didn’t see. And then I looked at the ref when I was on the canvas. 

“I was like, ‘You’re actually counting?’ So, I said, ‘Bro, I’ve got to get up here.’ He [Adeleye then] threw a barrage of punches, nothing landed, and he pushed me forward. I fell and then I was looking at my corner and my corner said take the eight count and told me to get up. If I was out of it, I wouldn’t have heard them. But the referee ended up stopping it and here we are.”

It is not just the punch on the break Tshikeva has taken issue with, but the stoppage, too.

“I just feel like the referee got it all wrong and he just didn’t know how to deal with the situation at hand,” claimed Tshikeva. 

Post-fight, the boxers were respectful with one another, although tempers had flared earlier in the week, resulting in Adeleye banging the pre-fight press conference table with his fist before Tshikeva overturned the table. But despite the controversy in the week, the animosity did not bubble over again on fight night.

“I ain’t got a problem with Adeleye,” said Tshikeva. “It’s the heat of the moment. The referee just got it wrong. I ain’t got a problem with Adeleye. It is what it is.”

Does Tshikeva anticipate an issue with the Board reprimanding him for flipping the table?

Adeleye had lit the touch paper by banging his fist on the table repeatedly. He has not heard from the Board about that separate matter. 

“Not yet,” he responded. “But, look, no one was hurt. It wasn’t thrown at anyone. Obviously, at the end of it, we both got heated; two hotheads in one place. Yeah, it just got out of hand. It got out of hand, but I haven’t been called yet. We’ll see. You know what it was? He was hitting the table, kept slamming it, so I said, ‘I’m going to do one better,’ and that’s exactly what I did. I slammed it and lifted it. I mean, I did get angry, but in a way, you could call it for show as well. But I was pissed off with him, yeah.”

With the table-flip and the stoppage in Manchester at the Co-op Live Arena, Tshikeva filed two viral clips in the space of three days.

“Well, anything goes viral in this sport, I guess, because sometimes boxing can get boring,” he said. “Not boring as a sport, but in terms of the press conference. It could get boring because everyone knows what to expect and what everyone else is going to say. But the fact that it was as fiery as it was made it interesting and made a lot of people tune in. So that’s where the excitement came from.” 

The 31-year-old from Tottenham in North London says he is in the sport “trying to make history.” 

Even though he only started at the age of 18, he has long loved boxing. He comes from a family of freestyle wrestlers. His father is a wrestling coach and his siblings took that path, but Jeamie wanted to box. 

“I just want to continue making history and get to where I know I can get to maximise my potential, basically,” he said. 

And he believes his future might lie beyond British title level. He is now 8-2 (5 KOs). 

“I believe I can push on, definitely,” he said. “I can go above that and then have some interesting fights with international opponents. I can’t wait to get to that point. It’ll be good. I’m here for whatever is in front of us.”

Tshikeva looked up to Evander Holyfield, Sugar Ray Leonard, and James Toney, and he knows about the history and lineage of the British title – the Lonsdale Belt – which is what attracted him to face Adeleye for the vacant title.  

“If it was just a normal fight, I don’t think me and Adeleye would have fought,” Tshikeva explained. “It was literally that title being on the line which made it happen. I want it around my waist.”

For now, however, the title is around Adeleye’s midline, although the British Boxing Board of Control is set to make a decision on Tshikeva’s appeal for a rematch tomorrow (Wednesday).

With that in mind, Tshikeva is open to all eventualities, although his priority remains settling the score with Adeleye. 

“The main thing is to put that fight to bed and then move on from there,” Tshikeva said. “That’s it, really. But I do believe that the Board will make the right decision. I’m just waiting on them, and yeah, that’s it, really.”

And while Tshikeva felt aggrieved over what happened last weekend, he ultimately knows it is good for business. 

“Yeah, of course,” he smiled, discussing a potential rematch. “It’s going to be a big event, which is good. It’s good for us. It’s good for boxing. So, yeah, it’s good overall. So, it’s a blessing. It’s a blessing in disguise, obviously.”