'Bad habits' cost China's Yang Lianhui world title, says coach Justin Fortune

China's "Wild Man" Yang Lianhui needs more experience after reverting to bad habits that proved hard to break in his world title defeat in Macau, says his strength and conditioning coach, Justin Fortune.

Yang was outboxed by the unbeaten Cesar Cuenca, as the Argentine lifted the vacant IBF (International Boxing Federation) junior welterweight world championship by a unanimous decision at the Cotai Arena.

The 30-year-old Dalian- native, who suffered his first defeat in 20 fights, became the second Chinese fighter to lose a world title fight after two-time Olympic champion Zou Shiming failed at the same venue in March.

Fortune, coaching in place of Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, who was resting an ailing back, said Yang would learn from the experience.

"Yang was in some old habits that are hard to break. There were a couple of times he had [Cuenca] hurt but he would step back and try to showboat. These are habits he has to break. He tried to throw him to the floor [in the last round], I don't know what the f*** that was about," said Australian Fortune.

"There were things that me and Freddie in the gym had taught him, cut the ring off, cut the ring off, corner … corner, ropes, he didn't do anything of that. He kind of reversed back to the old habits.

"They're tough to break. He will break them eventually. This is probably the best [fighter] he has ever fought. In that respect, he's 19-1 and lost a title fight."