It has to stop.

For the good of the sport, it has to stop. For the health of the sport, it needs to end now. For the sport to have any kind of future, there needs to be a line in the sand.

We can’t keep having decisions like the one that denied Jack Catterall his dreams of becoming a unified world champion coming true against Josh Taylor in Scotland last night. We can’t.

Catterall has put his life on hold for two years waiting for that fight. Yes, he’s worked his whole life to arrive at that moment but this is also a man who stepped aside for the good of boxing to allow the sport to have a unified champion at 140 pounds rather than force Taylor to wait for his unification fight with Jose Ramirez or make him unable to gather all the super lightweight belts together. Yes, Catterall may have taken a few quid but his intentions were clear, do it for the sport and do it so his ultimate prize, his ultimate glory, would be greater.

With three minutes left last night, it seemed that glory would be all his. In the other corner, trainer Ben Davison was telling his charge, Taylor, he needed a knockout to win, to hold on to his titles.

Catterall needed to just stay on his feet and he did more than that. He did what he’d done all night and was a royal pain in a tartan arse.

Through the previous 11 rounds, Catterall had deployed a spearing, wonderfully-timed jab, often fired in a big left hand behind it and he was ridiculously stubborn when Taylor tried to overwhelm him with volume, either claiming the Scot and not allowing him to work or planting his feet and digging shots back.

The Chorley-challenger seemed to have an answer for almost everything. At times, Taylor looked despondent, frustrated and forlorn. The home crowd was often all-but silenced. Catterall was cool, calculated and boxing to trainer Jamie Moore’s plan to a tee while Taylor struggled to get his jab going and any momentum in the contest. His usual swagger, rhythm and output was not there. And in writing a column like this it’s easy to downplay what Taylor brought to a very good fight, and it’s easy to start looking for places to lay the blame at the door of anyone at Team Taylor. What happened last night was not their fault.

So, what can be done? Well, something, somewhere needs to change.

Plenty of it comes down to what referees are used. It’s long overdue that officials should be given or deducted points based on their performances. No longer can the subjective line, ‘It was how they interpreted the fight’ be trotted out. I don’t care. I’m even beyond the line that all judges – who have caused untold damage, heartbreak and embarrassment – have a different view of the fight because they all sit in different places.

That flimsy outlook this morning is absolutely pathetic. They might all have different vantage points but they’re supposed to be watching the same fight. Last night was not a nip-and-tuck fight. Catterall was the better man, and there can be no doubt about that.

If the officials’ performances are universally and rightly chastised, they should be relegated from top fights. If it continues, they should continue to drop down the pecking order. But everyone needs to take a stand. Promoters and TV networks should unite not to use repeat offenders. It’s a dangerous game when you start to allow them to have a say, but the present flawed system simply and clearly isn’t working. If it was, things like what happened at the Hydro in Glasgow wouldn’t be commonplace. Some might say you can count on one hand the shocking decisions on these shores last year but you shouldn’t be able to count them at all! It should not be ‘normal’, it shouldn’t be expected and it shouldn’t be accepted.

This, of course, is not just a British boxing problem, it’s a boxing problem.

I also don’t buy into a false narrative that Catterall coasted or took his foot off the gas in the final third of the fight. The bout became messy and no one ran away with it, and no one gave it away, either.

Had Catterall won, he would have woken up thinking about huge bouts with the cream of the super lightweights, for major money. He’d have been thinking of seven figures, Las Vegas, New York and maybe even box office. That one decision – and one vile scorecard in particular – has changed everything. What will he get in his next fight now? Five figures? A co-feature spot on another bill? A shot at a vacant title? Can he even face going back to the gym? Will that result, which had him in tears, have savaged his passion for the sport?

Taylor, who has struggled at the weight, has confirmed he will move up, too. The belts will splinter. Catterall will never get another chance to be unified champion. Taylor said he would fight Catterall again up at 147 but Catterall wanted the belts and he wanted the glory. A belt-less fight at 147 is not what he’s waited for. Him and Taylor was never personal. It was a means to an end.

Last night changed everything. Catterall would probably have preferred to have been knocked out, then he wouldn’t be in the pain he’s clearly feeling today. The “moral victor” line won’t mean a jot to him on Sunday, either. It certainly won’t clear any bills or chip away at the mortgage.

Even the promoter of the show, Ben Shalom, said he was “embarrassed” by what he saw. That was refreshing, but no one is any further forward for his admission that this sport looks rotten from the outside in.

Taylor said he was certain he’d won but fighters almost always are. The only time I remember a winner clearly having his mind-boggled by having his hand raised was after Richie Woodhall said he hadn’t deserved to defend his WBC super-middleweight title against Glenn Catley. There aren’t many fighters who own up to a loss when they’ve been on the right side of the scorecards and good fortune. Maybe time will change that, but you can’t bank on it. And what will it change?

Changes need to come from the top, from the administrators. Action needs to be decisive and there needs to be accountability from those making these appalling, life-changing decisions, instead of answering a few questions behind closed doors and a possible slap on the wrist.

Do these people not understand the implications of things like last night?

“Sacrificed everything to fight one of the top p4p ranked fighters, gave him a lesson,” wrote Catterall on social media today. “For what. Boxing shame on you. Judges ???? Dreams stolen.”

Boxing is always fighting not only to bring new fans to it but to attract new ones and last night was the final straw for many. It’s understandable. It’s got to the point where a fighter can win the first eight rounds of a fight and many on social media start predicting a draw or a decision the other way based on politics and what’s been happening in the past. It’s outrageous to even think it, but so often it happens. The stench of the sport constantly lingers, but on nights like last night it’s overbearing.