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Stevie Spark wins by DQ as Montana Love's WWE move proves costly

Words by
Ryan O'Hara

Montana Love saw his unbeaten record go by the wayside in an embarrassing display on Saturday.

The Cleveland-bred southpaw was dropped, cut, and later disqualified in a sixth-round upset to Australia's Stevie Spark.

Love was knocked down in the second round and was getting thoroughly outclassed.

However, after an accidental clash of heads resulted in a cut above his left eye, Love lost his mind and decided to audition for the WWE. He shoved Spark into the ropes and threw him over. Even that failed as Spark stuck the landing.

To add insult to injury, referee David Fields disqualified him.

It was quite the ending to their DAZN main event from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

“My job as a fighter is to come here and fight,” Spark said after the fight while boos rained down from the partisan crowd. “The fight didn’t go how I expected.”

Love had a decent opening frame. He connected with a clean left hand on Spark midway through and followed up with an uppercut. Spark promptly clinched, which prompted Fields to break them apart.

Spark lit up Love in the next round and that was the beginning of the end.

A right hand over the top from Spark caught Love on the chin just before he was sent to the canvas from a volley of shots.

Love boxed well for much of round three, working behind his jab, and keeping Spark at bay.

Love outworked Spark for much of the fourth round, but the Aussie closed the gap late, which allowed him to connect with a slew of left hooks to the body.

Spark capitalized in round five when he cracked Love with a straight right. They traded shots moments later, but Spark beat Love to the punch with a mean left hook.

Time was called early in round six after an accidental clash of heads left Love with a deep cut above his left eye. The ringside physician closely examined Love, who complained that he couldn't see but didn't want the fight stopped. The speech was good enough for the doctor, who warned Love that he would be keeping an eye on him.

“We were in an exchange. We were just caught in a headbutt. The ref seen it. For a second my left eye went blind,” Love said.

He decided to take matters into his own hands, which cost him.

When action resumed, both fighters were caught in a clinch. Love then drove Spark into the ropes and flipped him over the top rope.

After Spark landed on his feet, he waved both his arms as to say, “Nice try. Anything else?” As Spark made his way back to the ring, Fields disqualified Love.

“I’m holding the rope. He elbowed me, was doing dirty tactics all night, roughhousing,” insisted Love. “I’m not one of those guys that’s going for that. So, I pushed him off me. I never intentionally [pushed Spark over the top rope]. I’m not picking him up. He’s wrapping his arm around me, grabbing me, and I just pushed him. It ain’t no I picked him up and pushed out the ring. It was just a terrible call.”

Video of the incident clearly showed Love pushing Spark from the center of the ring to the ropes, before lifting him up into the air and pushing him over the ropes.

Matchroom Boxing's Eddie Hearn, who signed Love last summer, also disagreed with the decision to disqualify Love.

“I saw it right in front of me. It was a terrible decision by the referee,” he insisted. “He acted way too quickly. It was 20-30 seconds of madness, from the headbutt to the doctor coming in, I don’t know. Everyone looked loss in the decision-making process. Montana was rough but he was right, he didn’t pick him up.

“Credit to Stevie Spark. When he fell out of the ring, he got right back up and made his way back to the ring. Montana Love didn’t look for a way out, it was turning into a real fight. Montana got off the floor. The referees got to stop making these quick decisions. The referee has a tough job but that was a poor decision. Maybe we’ll do it again.”

Spark improves to (16-2, 14 KOs) with the win, his fourth in a row. Love drops to (18-1-1, 9 KOs).

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