Bulgarian heavyweight boxer Kubrat Pulev went viral after he kissed reporter Jenny SuShe at the conclusion of a post-fight interview.
The interview was after he remained near the top of the heavyweight rankings by knocking out Romania's Bogdan Dinu in California on the weekend, improving his record to 27-1 with the only defeat a knockout loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.
SuShe told news.com.au the moment was "(a little) embarrassing" and "strange".
But the reason for that might simply be that according to the boxer the pair are actually good friends.
Pulev felt forced to take to social media to defend the kiss he gave SuShe post interview as blood still dripped from a cut above his left eye.
"You may have seen a clip of me kissing a female reporter after I won my fight on Saturday night," he wrote.
"The reporter, Jenny is actually a friend of mine and after the interview, I gave her a kiss.
"Later that night she joined me and my other friends at my post-fight celebration — after our kiss we both laughed about it and thanked each other.
"There is really nothing more to this."
The kiss came after he said he felt he deserved the next shot at lineal champion Tyson Fury,
recently the 37-year-old has claimed the scalps of Dereck Chisora, Samuel Peter, Kevin Johnson and Hughie Fury.