It wasn’t pretty but Demsey McKean resumed his knockout ways in the end.

The unbeaten Australian southpaw made the most of an awkward ring affair in his return home, taking out Germany’s Patrick Korte in the third round of their heavyweight scrap. A pair of left hands forced Korte to crash to the canvas, prompting a stoppage at 2:59 of round three in their DAZN-aired co-feature Saturday at South Bank Piazza in South Brisbane, Australia.

“I told everyone to bet their house on the knockout,” McKean told lead commentator Ben Damon after the win. “I kind of had to live up to that.”

Korte was a longshot underdog to upset the locally based McKean but didn’t waste any time literally swinging for his shot. The visiting German heavyweight immediately took the fight to Ipswich’s McKean, though rarely landing anything of substance.

McKean had Korte hurt midway through the round and produced a cut over his right eye along with busting open his nose. Korte tried his damnedest to turn the tide, though far too aggressive as he was admonished for throwing four punches along the ropes after being ordered by the referee to break in the action.

The sloppy slugfest saw McKean draw a warning for pushing Korte to the canvas in round two. It was a rare hiccup in an otherwise lopsided win for the 32-year-old Aussie, who frequently enjoyed success with his left hands.

“He was quite awkward,” admitted McKean. “I just had to weather that first round. I got good instructions from my corner, landed a couple of shots then take that half step back to land my uppercut.”

It came for McKean late in round three. Korte was battered and leaning in when he was clipped with two separate left uppercuts. The latter forced the 38-year-old to fall flat on his back, struggling to make it to his feet as the fight was brought to a halt.

Korte falls to 18-2-1 (13KOs), snapping a seven-fight unbeaten streak as he fell well short in his first career fight outside of Germany.

McKean advances to 22-0 (14KOs) with the win, his first in Australia since last May. In between came his U.S. debut last November followed by his first career fight in the UK, where he has also established his training headquarters.

The fight came after talks stopped cold of a potential November 26 clash with heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte. He hopes to still land such a fight in 2023, along with talks of potentially facing former two-time unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua who is eyeing a global tour.  

Headlining the show, unbeaten domestic rivals Liam Paro (22-0, 13KOs) and Brock Jarvis (20-0, 18KOs) meet in a scheduled twelve-round regional junior welterweight title fight.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox