Anthony Mundine's plans to head to the US are in disarray after 'The Man' suffered a shock fifth round knockout at the hands of Garth Wood in their middleweight bout at Sydney's Acer Arena on Wednesday night.
Mundine had planned to use the fight - Wood's reward for winning The Contender television series - as his final stepping stone before heading overseas, but admitted everything was now up in the air after Wood left him sprawling on the canvas 58 seconds into the fifth round.
After what had been a scrappy opening four rounds dominated by grappling and warnings from the referee, Wood - in just his 12th professional fight - landed a vicious left hook on Mundine's chin to send the two-time world champion to an early demise.
"You get caught, but it's about how you bounce back ... he's rised (sic) up so all credit to him," Mundine said.
"I'll go back to the drawing board and talk to my team and see where we go from there.
"Congrats to Garth - he thoroughly deserves it."
Few gave Wood - who like Mundine was a former NRL player - any chance of beating an opponent who held a massive edge in experience and class.
In more than 20 bouts against Australian fighters, Mundine had never been defeated by a compatriot, and had come into Wednesday night's fight riding a 17-bout unbeaten streak stretching back to 2005 when he lost to Mikkel Kessler in Sydney.
Wood, who only made it to The Contender series as a late replacement for an injured Shannon Taylor, said this was just the start of bigger things.
"What do I say, I'm the best kept secret, but you are all aware of me now," Wood said.
"It was hard to get to Anthony early, I think he was aware of my power and I was just trying to bang away on is body but he was grabbing on me for a while.
"When I had the chance I hit him with the left and then he dropped and then I hit him with the left hook - that's what we've been training for."
While delighted by his win, Wood paid tribute to Mundine for giving him the opportunity to ply his trade on the big stage.
"If it wasn't for him, I never would have got a knock on the door, I never would have been able to chase my dream since I was a kid," Wood said.
"I take my hat off to him, I've got all the time in the world for him."
In front of a large gathering of past and present sporting personalities including Wests Tigers pair Lote Tuqiri and Benji Marshall, All Black Sonny Bill Williams, AFL recruit Israel Folau, former Socceroos Mark Bosnich and Robbie Slater and Sydney Roosters coach Brian Smith - who was coaching St George when Mundine broke into the first grade ranks in 1993 - the two fighters struggled to land a clean blow over the opening four rounds.
The most damage was inflicted by an accidental head clash which left Wood with a nasty cut above his left eye, a fate which characterised his series of bouts in the The Contender competition.
In the main undercard, Namibian-born Australian Johannes Mwetupunga defended his Australian Middleweight crown with a unanimous points decision over Sydney-sider Peter Mitrevski Jnr, while Billy 'The Kid' Dib registered a TKO win in his lightweight bout with Mick Shaw.
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