Belfast’s Michael Conlan suffered further disappointment as he was stopped in the seventh round by England’s Jordan Gill in his home city.
Gill pinned Conlan in the corner just over a minute into the round and landed a barrage of punches that led to the fight in the SSE Arena being stopped.
He knocked the Belfast fighter down in round two and was on top throughout with a blistering performance.
It was a crushing loss for Conlan, who had begun to show signs of recovery.
He and his home crowd seemed stunned when he was knocked down by a strong left and follow-up right in the second round, producing a count of eight, and it was a few rounds before he began to find any rhythm in the bout.
However, with a minute and 45 second lefts of the seventh round, his opponent cornered him and landed a series of strong left and right punches that prompted referee Howard Foster to stop the fight.
Conlan was fighting for the first time since suffering a world-title bid defeat against Mexico’s Luis Alberto Lopez at the same venue in May.
That was a fifth-round stoppage and came just over a year after his first world-title bid also ended in disappointment, when he went into the final round against England’s Leigh Wood before being knocked out of the ring.
Conlan revealed that he came close to retiring during the summer and after Saturday night’s shock defeat there will likely now be questions about whether the Olympic bronze medallist will fight again.
He had changed trainers – from Adam Booth to Pedro Diaz, a 61-year-old Florida-based Cuban – after May’s defeat and spoke this week about how he had enjoyed working with Diaz.
He would have hoped that the contest with Gill could have been the start of him building towards a third tilt at a world title, but that now appears to be further away than ever.
Having never suffered a professional defeat before the meeting with Wood, Conlan has now lost three times in 21 fights, with the move up to super-featherweight appearing to suit Gill more.
Conlan fails to recover as Gill makes blistering start
With a capacity SSE Arena crowd in Belfast full of anticipation, the first round was a quiet one with both fighters appearing to size each other up.
The pace changed in the second round, however, with Gill landing a nice left to Conlan’s head before he put the 32-year-old down with a strong left followed up by a right as Conlan was going down.
There was a count of eight before Conlan was ready to continue, but it was clearly a huge moment in the fight and one that definitely hurt the Belfast man.
Gill slipped and went down in round three but he maintained control of the fight despite a resilient uppercut and left hook from Conlan, who finally showed some signs of edging his way into the bout in the fourth round.
The mini revival saw him find a good rhythm with his jab and he also dug deep to land a number of effective combinations, though all the while Gill never looked unduly bothered.
Conlan’s movement looked a lot more instinctive and purposeful in round five and in round six he produced what would be his best spell, landing a number of strong punches off both sides that had the Englishman visibly shaken for the first time in the fight.
However, the former Commonwealth champion recovered quickly to make sure the seventh was the final round of the night – and possibly of Conlan’s professional career.
Crocker too strong for McKenna in ‘Battle of Belfast’
Dubbed the ‘Battle of Belfast’ during the build-up to Saturday night’s event, Lewis Crocker took on Tyrone McKenna in the fight before Conlan v Gill.
And it was the less experienced Crocker who came out on top, dominating throughout with a display of strong punching that led to a unanimous points victory in a fight for the WBA Continental Europe Welterweight title.
The SSE Arena was packed for the fight as Crocker made the most of already having fought three times this year to come out on top.
Before Crocker’s win over McKenna, another Belfast fighter in Caomhin Agyarko secured the biggest win of his career as he beat Troy Williamson.
Before that, Belfast super-lightweight Sean McComb secured a dominant unanimous decision win over Sam Maxwell to earn his 18th win in 19 fights.
Earlier, Fearghus Quinn maintained his unbeaten record by beating Angel Emilov before an entertaining Ruadhan Farrell-Gerard Hughes contest ended in a draw.
Leli Buttigieg earned a first-round stoppage win in his pro debut and Cameron Vuong stopped Michael Dufek in the fourth round to improve his record to 3-0.
