TJ Doheny has suffered defeat against Daniel Roman in their unification bout in California.
The Irishman fought the California native in the early hours of Saturday morning and just came up short in the fight for the IBF and WBO super bantamweight belts.
The bout went the full 12 rounds before the judges scored it: 113-113, 116-110, 116-110 in the American's favour.
Doheny's best round came in the seventh when a number of shots led to Roman ending up on the floor, but it was not a knockdown.
The Laois native, who came into the fight as the IBF champion, was on the math twice - in the second and in the eleventh rounds.
Speaking after the bout, Doheny suggested that he would like a rematch before thanking promoter Eddie Hearn.
He also praised "absolute gentleman" Roman, saying: "He's a great fighter, but more importantly he's an absolute gentleman and that means more to me than anything so I just want to congratulate him first.
"Secondly, the plan was to come here and become undisputed champion. That didn't come.
"Plan two was to give the people of Las Angeles an absolute war and I hope I entertained everyone tonight."
Doheny also admitted a body shot in the middle of the fight really hurt him.
He added: "I think it was in around the mid-rounds he caught me with a really good body shot and I didn't recover from it.
"He just kept working on it and working on it and it slowly broke me down but I'm an Irishman, we're warriors, we stuck it out until the end and I hope I done everybody proud. "
On the possibility of a rematch, he commented: "My stock can only go up from there. I put it all on the line.
"I was in there against a world class operator. It wasn't like I got beaten by some Joe Soap. I got beaten by the best 122 fighter in the world.
"I said it all along in the build-up, the winner was going to be the number one. Danny's the man. I can't take anything away from him.
"If there's a rematch on the cards, whatever I want to go straight back in at the top."
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
