CHESTER, W.Va. - Brian Minto's undefeated record as a professional boxer is no more.

The 29-year-old heavyweight dropped a controversial split decision to former WBA champion Tony Tubbs, 46, Thursday night, losing his West Virginia heavyweight championship at The Harv on the grounds of the Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort.

The pro-Minto crowd of approximately 3,000 booed the decision when it was announced.

Hall of Fame trainer Lou Duva, who signed Minto a few months ago, was so incensed by the decision that he said he won't bring Minto back to Mountaineer again.

The Butler resident was scheduled to be part of a fight card Feb. 25 at The Harv.

"It's a shame because they put on a good show here and we were treated well," Duva said. "But I can't risk ruining a kid's career over officiating like that.

"Tubbs grabbed and held Minto all night. He laid all over him, sapped his energy, and was never warned once by the referee. If he was warned two or three times, I'd have no problem with it. He was never warned once."

Duva screamed at the referee as he departed the ring after the bout.

Minto (18-1, 11 KOs) gave away 46 pounds of weight and two inches of height to Tubbs.

"The guy knew what he had to do to win the fight," Minto said. "He's no dummy. I'm very inexperienced compared to him."

Tubbs improved to 49-10 with 25 KOs with the win in a largely uneventful fight. Neither fighter ever appeared to be visibly hurt by the other throughout the 10-round bout.

Minto landed a right to Tubbs' stomach in the early seconds of the final round, causing Tubbs to bend down in pain. But the fighters rarely exchanged combinations all night.

"How could he hit him? Brian wasn't allowed to do anything," Minto trainer Tom Yankello said. "Every time he'd go at him, Tubbs would just grab him and hang on.

"There are rules against that, but they weren't enforced tonight. You get two warnings. A point is deducted after the third warning, another point is deducted after the fourth, the fighter is disqualified after the fifth warning.

"There was never any warnings given and that (holding) is all the guy was doing," Yankello added.

Tubbs disagreed.

"I'm not a slugger, I'm a boxer," he said. "I thought I won the fight handily. I was hitting him four times to every one time he was hitting me.

"I know how to score points. It's not my responsibility to let the guy go. If I tie him up, the referee has to pull us apart."

Two judges scored the fight 96-94 for Tubbs. The other scored it 97-93 for Minto.

Tubbs said he's not surprised he stayed 10 rounds with Minto despite weighing in 13 pounds heavier than his pre-fight goal of 245.

"I trained hard for this," he said. "I worked the equivalent of eight rounds a day on the heavy bag, another five rounds a day on the speed bag.

"I still have the speed in my punches. I just have to get in better condition to use it."

Minto struggled to mount any kind of attack against Tubbs all night. He fell to the canvas while lunging toward Tubbs in the ninth round. Tubbs threw Minto to the canvas as a referee separated a tie-up in the seventh round.

"He was awkward," Minto admitted. "It was frustrating because he kept grabbing me. I probably stayed away from him too much. I let him use his left jab and look good in front of the judges.

"I knew it was gonna be close, but I thought I had it won. I'm not gonna whine or cry about it. I congratulated him, wished him well, told him to stop screwing up and take care of his kids."

Tubbs has fathered 16 children and returned to the ring this year after a five-year layoff.

"Hey, I need the money," Tubbs said. "Hopefully, this is the start of something."

Duva still plans to find an opponent for Minto on a card in late February - but not at Mountaineer.

"I just don't want to bring him back here," Duva said.

Minto made it clear that one loss will not alter his career plans.

"I'll just shrug it off," He said. "I'll be back."

"Brian Minto is still a great fighter," Tubbs said. "I beat him by outboxing him - maybe outfoxing him - but he's going to have a great career."

Highlights of the under-card included Aliquippa's Verquan Kimbrough (10-0-1) defending his NABC America's junior lightweight title with a 33-second knockout of Terrell Hargrove (7-8) and Monty Meza-Clay of Rankin (14-0) defending his West Virginia lightweight title with a third-round TKO over Dave McBride (8-5).