Brian Forsyth quits after narrow points defeat at Meadowbank

Brian Forsyth has revealed his Scottish super middleweight title loss to Rhys Pagan was his final bout as a professional boxer.

Brian Forsyth

But, the Capital fighter insists the 96-95 defeat isn’t a knee-jerk reaction and that he would have called it quits even if the scoring had gone in his favour at Meadowbank on Saturday night.

The 30-year-old certainly saved his best performance until last, finding his range as the contest wore on but came up short where it mattered. He ends his pro record with six wins, one defeat and a draw.

“That’s me done,” Forsyth said afterwards. “That was my last fight as I’ve had enough. Even if I’d won I was still calling it a day. It would have been great to have finished on a high.

“I feel I was robbed. I think the scoreline was right but it should have been in my favour. I pushed every round until the final round. I’m gutted as I put my heart on the line and got stronger as the fight went on. Rhys said to me he’s never had a tougher fight and he thought I’d won.”

Edinburgh cruiserweight Ratu Latianara, who is originally from Fiji, got proceedings underway with a comfortable points win over Florians Strupits of Latvia to improve to 3-0.

Despite registering his eighth victory as a professional, Lewis Benson found Marek Laskowski a tougher customer than he might have anticipated. After a cagey opening two rounds, the 25-year-old stepped it up a gear in the third finding success with the jab. It wasn’t pretty but Benson was awarded the contest 59-55.

Haddington middleweight Iain Trotter, who was making his pro debut, looked assured in his first fight at this level, earning a fourth-round stoppage against Glasgow’s Alireza Alimohammadi.

Featherweight Stephen Tiffney was a man on a mission from the first bell in his six-rounder with undefeated Liverpudlian Ricky Starkey, making short work of his opponent who had fallen to the canvas twice before the towel was thrown into the ring from the Englishman’s corner midway through the second round. A short but satisfying night’s work for Tiffney who moves to 7-0.

And, light heavyweight Tommy Philbin warmed up for his Scottish title showdown against Grant Quigley in June with a fifth-round stoppage over Sheffield’s Chris Dutton.