Irish middleweight John Duddy lost the first fight of his career after dropping a split decision to Ohio puncher Billy Lyell in New Jersey in the early hours of Saturday morning.
One of the judges marked the fight 97-93 in favour of Duddy, but the other two scored the contest 96-94, 98-92 in Lyell's favour at the Prudential Centre in Newark.
New York based Derry native Duddy had been hoping to get a shot at Kelly Pavliks World title later this year.
But it is now very much back to the drawing board for the 29 year-old Ulsterman, who was unbeaten in 26 fights going into last night's ten-rounder.
