Matthew Macklin's world title ambitions were all but served a critical blow tonight in Dublin as he was stunned by Jorge Sebastian Heiland.
The Tipperary Tornado headlined the main event but, after dominating the first two rounds as expected, he found his Argentine opponent hard to handle and was behind on the judges' scorecards before the 10th round knockout.
The Birmingham-born fighter had hopes of going on to be world champion and making serious noises, but after this defeat, there was a consensus that the 32-year-old's future lies in domestic bouts, if he doesn't walk away altogether.
"It was an accurate shot that put me down but it wasn't that heavy," Macklin assessed the 10th round winner. "I had been tired for two or three rounds before that, truth be told. Maybe I burned up a little too much energy early on, maybe I'm getting old.
"I'll have to see where I go from here."
