Irish boxer Dennis Hogan has suffered a seventh-round knockout in his WBC middleweight world title fight against Jermall Charlo.
Kildare native Hogan - fighting for world honours for the second time after April's controversial defeat to Jaime Munguia - survived a knockdown in the fourth, but could not ultimately recover from a vicious left hook in the seventh at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Hogan (28-3-1, 7 KO), who is based in Australia, made a solid start to the fight.
Unbeaten American Charlo (30-0, 22 KO) was content to size his opponent up in the opening round, before adapting a more aggressive attitude in the second.
The third was evenly matched, with Hogan landing one eye-catching left hook.
In the fourth round, Hogan - who made the move up to middleweight to challenge Charlo - was sent crashing to the canvas for only the second time in his career.
Charlo, known as 'The Hitman', connected with a vicious uppercut which sent Hogan tumbling backwards head over heels across the ring.
'Hurricane' survived the count, and the round, but Charlo gave another demonstration of his formidable power early in the seventh.
Having taken control of the fight following that knockdown in the fourth, the Texas native landing a clubbing left hook to the head to send Hogan to the canvas for the second time in the fight.
Hogan climbed to his feet but referee Charlie Finch soon brought the fight to an end, with the Kildare man's legs betraying him.
“I wanted to keep going but the decision was fair enough by the referee,” Hogan said afterwards.
“I didn’t see the punch coming on the second knockdown. I was trying to keep boxing him but then all of a sudden I was on the ground and the fight was over.”
Earlier in the night, British boxer Chris Eubank Jr became the WBA interim middleweight champion after his opponent Matt Korobov retired in the second round due to a shoulder injury.
🇺🇸 Jermall Charlo moves to 30-0 with a 7th round stoppage win over Dennis Hogan. pic.twitter.com/inmugAlMSq — All Of The Belts 🥊 (@AllOfTheBelts) December 8, 2019