Montana Love had a much different vision of how things would play out in a celebrated hometown headliner.

The night could not have gone worse for the Cleveland-bred southpaw, who was dropped, cut and eventually disqualified in a sixth-round upset to Australia’s Stevie Spark. Love overcame a second-round knockdown and a cut from a clash of heads, before a clinch and shove resulted in Spark being sent over the top rope and out of the ring to produce the end of the fight at 0:25 of round six in their DAZN main event Saturday evening from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

“My job as a fighter is to come here and fight,” Spark told DAZN’s Claudia Trejos after fight, though drowned out by a round of boos from the partisan crowd. “The fight didn’t go how I expected.”

Love made good on a pre-fight promise of walking Spark into his power shots. A left hand landed clean on the visiting Aussie midway through the opening round, with Love drawing in Spark close enough to crack him with an uppercut. Spark tried to make things uncomfortable, tying up Love and raking his left glove across his face which prompted referee David Fields to intervene.

Spark turned the tide in a big way just one round later.

A right hand over the top by Spark caught Love off guard and clean on the chin. An ensuing volley by Spark forced Love to the canvas inside the first minute of round two, a similar development to his previous fight when he was dropped in the same round of an eventual twelve-round win over Gabriel Valenzuela on May 7 in Las Vegas. Love recovered and avoided similar damage, though he drew a tongue lashing from his corner to stick to pure boxing.

Love kept the action at center ring for much of round three, working behind his jab. Spark looked to catch lightning in a bottle, unsuccessful as he followed Love around the ring without landing anything of consequence.

Spark was outboxed for much of round four but closed the gap in the final seconds, where he was able to land a couple of left hooks to the body. He carried that momentum into a productive round five, unloading with a flurry of punches. Love was able to block most of the shots before getting cracked with a straight right. Love responded with a left hand, which was immediately met with a left hook by Spark.

Time was called early in round six, as a clash of heads left Love with a deep cut above his left eye. The ringside physician examined Love, who complained of compromised vision but didn’t want the fight stopped. The doctor obliged, warning Love that he closely observed him for the next minute.

“We were in an exchange. We were just caught in a headbutt. The ref seen it. For a second my left eye went blind,” Love described of the headbutt preceding the fight ending sequence.

His own actions would prevent that scenario from transpiring.

Action resumed, with Spark missing a right hand. The two were caught in a clinch, at which point Love drove Spark to the ropes. From there, his forward momentum caused a clutching Spark to flip over the top rope. Spark had the awareness to avoid falling and literally landed on the feet. He made his way back to the ring, at which point referee David Fields stopped the fight.

““I’m holding the rope. He elbowed me, was doing dirty tactics all night, roughhousing,” insisted Love. “I’m not one of those guys that’s going for that. So, I pushed him off me. I never intentionally (pushed Spark over the top rope). I’m not picking him up. He’s wrapping his arm around me, grabbing me, and I just pushed him. It ain’t no I picked him up and pushed out the ring. It was just a terrible call.”

Confusion ensued, with Love’s corner pleading their case to the referee and members of the Ohio Athletic Commission. It fell on deaf ears, as promoter Eddie Hearn informed his charge that the plan was to file an appeal on Monday.

“I saw it right in front of me. It was a terrible decision by the referee,” insisted Hearn, whose Matchroom Boxing signed Love last summer. “He acted way too quickly. It was 20-30 seconds of madness, from the headbutt to the doctor coming in, I don’t know. Everyone looked loss in the decision-making process. Montana was rough but he was right, he didn’t pick him up.

“Credit to Stevie Spark. When he fell out of the ring, he got right back up and made his way back to the ring. Montana Love didn’t look for a way out, it was turning into a real fight. Montana got off the floor. The referees got to stop making these quick decisions. The referee has a tough job but that was a poor decision. Maybe we’ll do it again.”

For now, it’s the first official loss for Love, who falls to 18-1-1 (9KOs) in a hometown headliner to forget.

Spark advances to 16-2 (14KOs) with the win, his fourth in a row following a stoppage defeat to Tim Tszyu in a fight he accepted on barely a week’s notice and two divisions above his weight. A massive difference in preparation was evident, as both camps were given four months’ notice of the fight.

Both fighters just wish the night could have gone any other way.

“I got the early knockdown. Look, I’m as devasted as all of you guys,” Spark said in his best effort to deflect the crowd’s vocal disapproval. “It was warming up to be a fantastic fight. I come in this ring and fight with all my heart just like Montana Love. We were going to give you guys one hell of a show.

“It’s just how boxing goes sometimes.”

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