The Ring III card produced a ton of compelling action Saturday night at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing, New York.

The televised portion kicked off with a memorable light heavyweight contest that saw the underdog, Imam Khataev (10-1, 9 KOs), became the first to knock down David Morrell (12-1, 9 KOs) and gave the talented Cuban fits throughout their 10-round bout.

At the conclusion, judge Tony Lundy sided with Khataev 95-94 but was outvoted by John McKaie 96-93 and Allen Nace 95-94.

The result left many surprised, including on-air commentators Antonio Tarver, Sergio Mora and The Ring's Mike Coppinger, all of whom scored the fight for Khataev.

Eye of The Tiger president, Camille Estephan, was keen to champion his fighter's cause.

"It was an amazing show and great performance and let's do it again," he said. "We would like a rematch. If I put myself in Morrell's shoes it would be a matter of honor to fight again because everyone is saying he lost the fight and got a Christmas present from Santa Claus in July. If I was in their shoes, I would want to fix that."

The former WBC junior middleweight titlist, Mora, felt Khataev was unlucky not to have preserved his unbeaten record.

"I wouldn't go as far as calling it controversial or even a robbery, but I believe the judges got it wrong," he said. "Khataev came with an excellent game plan, timing and punching in between Morrell’s shots.

"The fight at worst should have been a draw at the very, very least. Yes, Morrell adjusted and won the second half of fight, but you can make a case Khataev won all of the first five rounds … including a knockdown.

"In a 10-round fight, yes, I believe Khataev deserved the decision."

Hall of Fame boxing analyst Al Bernstein went one step further as he took to X, formerly Twitter:

"I have reached the only sane conclusion you can on that fight, that Khataev won certainly six rounds of the fight and more than likely seven rounds of the fight and when you add in the knockdown, he had in Round 5, there is no conceivable way on this planet to score the fight for David Morrell.

"However, the three judges, who should be ashamed of themselves for the rest of their lives for the scoring, all got it wrong. The most egregious, of course was John McKaie, who had it 96-93 score for David Morrell, which means he gave Morrell seven of the 10 rounds, which is an impossibility. Alan Nace had it 95-94, for Morrell, giving him six rounds, also impossible and even Tony Lundy, who scored it 95-94 for Khataev, had it all wrong, he gave five rounds to Khataev."

Bernstein, who said he had watched the fight twice, went on and pulled no punches.

"You have to be either blind or biased to give the fight to David Morrell. Period. End of sentence," said the veteran former Showtime analyst.

According to CompuBox, Khataev landed more punches in six of the 10 rounds. The Cuban was more affective with his jab, outlanding his opponent in eight of the 10. However, the Australian-based Russian connected with more power punches in nine of 10.

Interestingly, both fighters landed 171 times.

"I rewatched the fight and tried say, 'OK, let me score this as a judge would, a round at a time.' And there's no way we lost that fight," Estephan said.

"It was the fight of the night. It was great entertainment. It's really too bad that we're talking about a controversial decision. Unfortunately, I cannot change the record that says 10-1 rather than 11-0, but obviously we feel the stock of Imam went up tremendously."

That appears to be the way The Ring's Rating panel saw things with Morrell rising one place from No. 8 to No. 7, while Khataev goes up on the loss, from 10th to eighth.

"You have to give both guys props for taking this fight," Estephan said. "Imam goes from fighter lesser-known opposition to fighting David Morrell and for Morrell to take a fight against Khataev, I think they knew who Khataev was very, very well. I want to do that fight, wherever, in my backyard, Quebec City, Riyadh."