Montana Love’s smile reverberated throughout Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio, this past weekend as he made his way through a jam-packed crowd. After watching the undercard fighters put on a show, Love’s hometown faithful eagerly grabbed their seat and waited patiently for the 140-pound contender to close things out.

Standing before the loquacious 27-year-old on the night, was the unheralded Steve Spark. Though Love’s smile broadened during the pre-fight introductions, he was immediately despondent as an aggressive Spark forced him into an uncomfortable battle.

With little to no time to feel out his foe, Love (18-1-1, 9 KOs) found himself staring up at the ceiling lights due to a knockdown in the second. To the Ohio native's credit, he seemed to stem the tide in the following rounds. In the sixth, nevertheless, chaos ensued.

Following an accidental clash of heads, both Spark and Love became entangled in the center of the ring. In kind, Love pushed his man against the ropes before flipping him over the top and outside of the ring. As a result, referee David Fields waved off their bout, handing Love the first defeat of his career via disqualification.

On the outside looking in, Love’s night appeared to be far from ideal. However, according to the flamboyant contender, despite blood trickling down his grotesquely wounded left eye, he believes that things were on the brink of turning around.

“The fight was just starting to break out,” said Love to IFL TV. “We wanted to turn it into a dog fight in the late rounds, we knew Steve was gonna shoot his wad, he was gonna gas out in the late rounds. We didn't have the opportunity. The referee definitely just jumped the gun, made a quick judgment call. Definitely wasn't happy with it.”

With his record officially sullied, Love is hopeful that he’ll receive a reprieve of sorts in the form of an immediate rematch. In terms of where he expects their sequel to take place, Love believes that both men should return to the scene of the crime.

“We gonna do the rematch right here in Cleveland, Ohio.”