The standard of judging in international professional boxing must come under severe scrutiny after last Saturday night's crazy judgment against Michael Carruth in Aachen, Germany.

It is not that one is questioning whether or not the Dubliner had won the WBO welterweight title,

what rankles in the mind of all fair-minded people, however, is the scoring discrepancy between the judges. Nobody could dispute the verdict of the judge who gave Carruth's opponent, Michael Loewe, the verdict by a single point after 12 rounds, nor the decision of the judge who scored it even. What cannot be explained is the score of the third judge, Puerto Rican, Tomas Vasquez, who claimed that Loewe had won by a margin of six points. That is, quite simply, ridiculous.

First things first. This was far from a classic fight. Carruth made most of the attacking but he never really succeeded in getting to grips with the fact that his opponent had two inches to spare in height and the extra reach that went with it. Constant intrusion by the referee to break the frequent clinches which arose from this situation did not contribute to a memorable occasion. Nevertheless, there was some fascination to the bout, mainly centred on the fact that Carruth was determined to make things difficult for Loewe by crowding him at every opportunity - something he succeeded in doing in the early rounds. In the circumstances it was not surprising that both boxers were showing facial damage early on and the referee called on the ringside doctor to examine Loewe's cut face during the fourth round.

Although supported all around the ring by the local populace even though he is Romanian by birth, Loewe seemed upset by Carruth's aggressive approach but he still managed to avoid most of the Dubliner's sallies and his counter-punching always seemed to negate Carruth's tactics.

Loewe repeatedly spoiled and tied up Carruth at close range and built up a decisive lead with his short bursts of combinations. Throughout the contest both men missed repeatedly and at times it was a gruelling, untidy affair with Loewe coming off second best in that fourth-round clash of heads. As the blood flowed from Loewe's right eye, Carruth seemed to step up a gear and had success as he moved in and out throwing clubbing hooks.

The Dubliner certainly won the fourth and sixth rounds, but crucially, he took his foot off the pedal for the next three rounds as he tried to pace himself for what was his first experience at the 12round distance.

It left Carruth needing to win the final three rounds decisively if he was to get the verdict and he threw caution to the wind in the pursuit of such an eventuality.

He showed a lot of courage in those final rounds, when he switched tactics from his negative counter-punching to concerted aggression, which certainly put Loewe on the back foot.

However, he failed to convince the judges that he had done enough to prise the world champion's belt from the German.

The scoring now seems academic apart from the reservations outlined above. Most experienced onlookers were in agreement that it was perilously close to a draw, with the one exception being the judge from Puerto Rico. What now arises is where the Olympic gold medallist can go from here.

He was clearly disappointed immediately afterwards. That may be putting it a little too weakly. In his own words he was "very annoyed" that he had lost. It would be a poor boxer who had gone 12 tough rounds in a world championship bout who would have reacted otherwise. The idea of a rematch on neutral territory was not getting a lot of support afterwards and Loewe would be the last man to agree to such a prospect. Carruth has turned 30 but is far from being past his best. Financial and family considerations however, have to be taken into account.

His problem really is that he may very well have ruled himself out of contention for another world title bout within the near future because of his sturdy, indeed, impressive and courageous attempt, on this occasion.

Without any question he had now demonstrated that he is a very difficult man to beat, Puerto Rican judges notwithstanding. One suspects that his dream of a world title has not gone out of his head. In the days before the fight, he frequently referred to the fact that his close friends, Steve Collins and Wayne McCullough, had both won world titles. "Now it is my turn" he said on several occasions.

His problem may be that he will find it difficult to find a world champion ready to take him on.

In the meantime he was philosophical in the cold light of day afterwards. Showing some battle scars about his face and forehead he felt, in his own words, that he hadn't been given "a fair crack of the whip". He described the Puerto Rican judge's score as insulting.

Pressed about his future he said: "One thing is certain. I am not retiring. I believe that if there is any justice I am entitled to a rematch. I'm not sure that I will get that. If you watch the body language in the ring at the end before the result was announced, he knew in his heart that he had been beaten and that I had won.

"I won the last four rounds. That decision was a bad decision for boxing. I could have taken a split decision but nobody will ever convince me that there was six points between us at the end. I am ready to fight him anywhere else. "I am very grateful indeed to the big number of people who came so far for the fight and gave me such wonderful support. They have been cheated as much as I have but I will try to make it up to them. Boxing has to stop putting up with these kinds of decisions and we have enough problems without decisions like this."

A sad shake of the head by his father, Austin, was as articulate as a thousand words. "He'll be all right. He knows that he didn't let anyone down. It will make him more determined than ever and I am still convinced that he can win a world title," he said.