Amir Khan rejected Paul McCloskey’s calls for a rematch after their world light-welterweight title fight was controversially stopped in the sixth round in Manchester, late Saturday.

The English fighter retained his WBA title by a technical unanimous points decision after the referee halted the fight due to a cut on McCloskey’s forehead that stretched to his left eyebrow.

Referee Luis Pabon stopped the fight on the advice of a ringside doctor and all three judges scored the bout 60-54 in the 24-year-old Englishman’s favour. At the time of the stoppage, Khan was well in control of his fourth title defence with his fast flurries of punches.

But many of the 18,000 crowd at the MEN Arena jeered the decision and McCloskey’s corner were livid. The Northern Irishman’s promoter Eddie Hearn has asked the British Boxing Board of Control to launch an investigation into the stoppage decision.

Khan, however, has no interest in a rematch and instead is set to fight American Tim Bradley, the WBC and WBO champion in a world title unification fight on July 23.

“I’ve got bigger things to do than a rematch,” Khan said.

“I want to unify the decision and fight Bradley. Paul didn’t win one round and with another two rounds I would have knocked him out. He was lucky the fight was stopped because otherwise he would have got knocked out.”