Vitali Tsypko: "I want to fight - and beat - Lacy again."

Press Release - Vitali Tsypko agrees with the experts who believe he was on the wrong end of a majority decision when Jeff Lacy last weekend clinched a debatable points victory in front of his hometown fans in Florida. While Larry Merchant and fellow journalists had the Ukrainian ahead, two of the judges controversially awarded the ten-rounder to the former IBF champion (96-94), with the third one scoring it a draw (95-95). "I feel like I have won this fight and I deserve a rematch," the 30-year-old southpaw (19-2, 10 KOs) said. "Lacy might have controlled the first two rounds but I took over in the following.

"I connected more often throughout and wobbled him big time at the end of the eighth round when only the bell saved him from a knock-down. I would have deserved to win."

ESPN´s Dan Rafael holds a similar view. "He (Tsypko) badly rocked Lacy at the end of the eighth round and dominated the final four rounds to do enough, it seemed, to win," Rafael wrote in his online column.

And Ant Evans, who called the result a "hometown decision", reported on secondsout.com: "I had Tsypko - who came back from a torrid opening round to bully Lacy at time - a two point winner."

Lacy looked nowhere near the star fighter that had won all of his first 21 fights before getting blown out of the ring by a superb Joe Calzaghe nine months ago. In fact, as the St. Petersburg Times noted, "last March didn´t seem so far away".

Tsypko feels the fight has won him many hearts across the Atlantic.

"I have shown the American audience that I can fight," he vowed. "I want to build on that performance and get another chance to shine. I want to fight - and beat - Lacy again."