Following his controversial loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Louisville this past weekend, Jared Cannonier has emotionally broken his silence and called for a rematch with the Frenchman.

Referee, Jason Herzog, called a stop to the fight a minute and a half into round four, after deeming that Jared Cannonier wasn’t intelligently defending himself as Nassourdine Imavov continued to throw strikes at him.

‘The Russian Sniper’, though, doesn’t believe there is any controversy and believes Herzog made the right call by stepping in when he did.

Jared Cannonier breaks his silence following controversial UFC Louisville loss

Speaking for the first time since his loss, ‘The Killa Gorilla’ emotionally opened up about the controversial loss, claiming that Jason Herzog took the opportunity away from him.

“It’s gut-wrenching, to say the least,” Cannonier said on The MMA Hour. “The opportunity to do great things was stolen from me in that moment.

“It doesn’t feel like I lost the fight, it feels like it was taken from me. Gut-wrenching is an understatement,” Cannonier added.

With the loss, the 40-year-old also missed out on half of his paycheck, as he revealed his contract is still structured on a show/win basis. Going into the fourth round, Cannonier was winning two rounds to one on two of the judges’ scorecards.

“The opportunity was snatched away from me, not to mention the chance to get two checks, my second check my win bonus check and probably even that moment could’ve made it Fight of the Night, had the fight kept going, that moment could’ve made it Fight of the Night,” Cannonier stated.

Although the UFC brass agrees with Cannonier that the fight ended prematurely, there have been no conversations regarding paying the number four-ranked middleweight the second half of his paycheck.

Jared Cannonier demands a rematch with Imavov at UFC Paris

Following his controversial win, Imavov called for his next fight to be a rematch against Sean Strickland, stating that he wants to fight the former champion at UFC Paris, in September.

The two first met in the Octagon back in January last year, with ‘Tarzan’ picking up the unanimous decision win.

However, the Frenchman’s callout may have gone to waste, as the former middleweight champion stated after his UFC 302 win over Paulo Costa, that he was going to sit and wait for another title shot.

The former title challenger, Cannonier, is demanding that a rematch against the 28-year-old happen in September, at UFC Paris.

“As far as compensation, I want to petition for a rematch. The UFC is going to Paris in September, I would love to go to Nassourdine’s backyard and make that right.

“That’s what I would like, to make that right. To make that right is something I want, a rematch in Paris, he came over here so I’m more than happy to go over there,” Cannonier demanded.

The promotion has only been to the French capital twice before and their return is scheduled for September 28, with Ciryl Gane being the most likely to main event the card for a third time.