CHIPPENHAM’S Kent Kauppinen lost his light heavyweight bout to Melvin Manhoef courtesy of a unanimous points decision at Wembley Arena on Saturday night.

Fighting on the Bellator London card, Kauppinen described how he ‘went to war’ with a legend of MMA, and although he was controversially denied the spoils in a thrilling contest, the 27-year-old could say he had given his hero a real run for his money.

Kauppinen fell agonisingly short in the televised bout, going down 29-28 on all three judges’ scorecards, despite flooring the Dutchman in the first round and controlling the fight in the third.

The Melksham-trained fighter believes the judges could have called it either way, and despite the loss, Kauppinen insisted he was not the type of guy to call for a re-match.

He said: “The whole 15 minutes was a war, an absolute war.

“I dropped him in the first round, then near the end of the first round, he dropped me.

“In the second round, he head-kicked me which completely stunned me and then I recovered before dominating him in the third round.

“They (the judges) said he won two round and I won one. A lot of people are saying it should have been one round each and a draw, a lot of people are saying he won, a lot of people are saying I won.

“In my opinion, I wouldn’t have been happy with winning because it wasn’t a win. I would have been happy with a draw, but I’m happy either way.”

Following Saturday’s painful defeat, Kauppinen’s record moved to 11-5, and the 27-year-old admitted he was full of emotion in the dressing room afterwards.

But with help from his coach Stu Pike, the Wiltshire fighter was able to gain some valuable perspective post-fight and has vowed to come back stronger than ever thanks to his rising stock in the world of MMA.

Kauppinen said: “I went back into my changing room and cried my eyes out because it hurts to lose, but then my coach said to me, ‘Kent, who did you used to watch when you were growing up?’

“I said, ‘Melvin Manhoef’, and he said, ‘well who did you just fight against? You’ve just fought against your hero and stood toe to toe with him for 15 minutes.’

“He’s had 30 wins and 28 by knockout. It was stacked against me – I was there to get knocked out.

“So many people have said to me how impressed they were with the shots I took and came back from.

“I didn’t get hurt, I didn’t get knocked out and I went three rounds with one of my heroes and a legend in the sport.

“I was live on TV, I had a load of people from Chippenham there supporting me, and it was at Wembley – it was amazing.”