Josh Warrington shocked by Alberto Lopez as he loses IBF featherweight title in front of stunned Leeds Arena

Both fighters celebrated at the final bell as the bout went the 12-round distance with the judges scoring the contest to Lopez via a majority decision with two judges ruling the fight 115-113 in favour of the Mexican with the other card scoring the bout as a draw.

In a very close fight, Warrington lost for only the second time in his career after his first defeat in the professional ranks came against Mauricio Lara at the beginning of 2021.

Lopez started brighter than the reigning champion which proved crucial come the latter rounds. The Leeds Warrior was more aggressive in the final two rounds as Lopez was involved in his longest-ever contest having never fought past 10 rounds.

Warrington celebrated at the end of the fight but as the scores were read out a stunned silence fell upon the First Direct Arena.

It raises several questions over what lies ahead for Warrington. The 32-year-old had hoped to fight abroad in a featherweight unification contest but those plans are up in smoke as there is no rematch clause against Lopez, after the Mexican was made mandatory challenger by the IBF.

"I'm absolutely devastated," said Warrington, who admitted he was concerned about his jaw after it was broken and required surgery following his win over Kiko Martinez in March.

Warrington was non-committal about what lies ahead for him but his promoter Eddie Hearn insisted a fight in the United States can still happen. Whether that materialises remains to be seen.

Despite an electric ringwalk and atmosphere, it was Lopez who made the stronger start and he was able to draw blood from the nose of Warrington during the opening round.

Lopez needed treatment in round two after an accidental clash of heads left the Mexican with a cut on his left eye.

Parallels could be drawn with Warrington’s second clash with Mauricio Lara last year, called off early as a technical draw due to similar circumstances.

Lopez carried on, however, and appeared unfazed with his more accurate shots causing the home favourite all sorts of problems.

Warrington started to find his range in the middle section of the fight and produced a big left hook in the sixth round.

Challenger Lopez was still smiling and chatting away while regularly handing out punishment to the body of the British boxer.

The tempo increased in the latter stages with the duo trading blows, but despite a brilliant final round from Warrington the Mexican stood firm to ensure the judges would decide the winner.

While one of the scorecards went with a 114-114 draw, the other two were 115-113 in favour of Lopez to give the 29-year-old the biggest victory of his career.

Warrington said: “I’m absolutely devastated losing my title like that but I want to say a big thank you to all these for making noise, so thank you.

“I did have aspiration of doing other things. Obviously I wanted to go to the (United) States and I still want to do that.

"Maybe unifying is a step too far but I think I can still fight one of the other champions. Obviously I would have the rematch as well because I thought I was a little hard done by there.”

Lopez added: “I’m really happy at the moment. It has been a long period of preparation. As I said in the build-up, this is my moment, it comes from hard work. I’m delighted to be world champion.

“To be honest I had to respect him coming into his city, in front of his people. I knew he was a dirty fighter but he surprised me even more, he was hitting me to the legs, in the gut and the referee I didn’t feel did his work.”

Ebanie Bridges successfully defended her IBF world bantamweight title with a stoppage win over Shannon O'Connell in a thrilling showdown.

Australian Bridges, who has become a bit of a fan favourite in Leeds, dropped her opponent in the third round with a thunderous right, and then finished the fight in the eighth round as the referee stepped in to make it nine wins a row.

Leeds fighter Hopey Price signed off in the eight-round distance with a comprehensive victory over Jonathan Santana.

Referee John Latham had the 22-year-old super bantamweight winning all eight rounds.

Heckmondwike’s Cory O’Regan extended his unbeaten record to 9-0 with a stoppage of Antonio Rodriguez.

Rotherham’s Junaid Bostan moved to 4-0 with a knockout of Athanasios Glynos while the all-Yorkshire bout between Koby McNamara and Nabil Ahmed went the way of Leeds’s McNamara who enhanced his burgeoning reputation with a points win over four rounds.