Friday 28 June 2019 22:34, UK
Paul Hyland Jr came up short in his bid for European honours as he was stopped by Francesco Patera inside six rounds in Milan.
The Belfast lightweight showed plenty of courage at the Allianz Cloud but was outgunned by the Belgian champion, dropped four times before the referee mercifully waved off proceedings.
Patera has now made two defences of the EBU belt he won in style against Lewis Ritson last year and impressively recorded an early finish for the first time since 2016.
The Belfast man did come out to ferociously set an electrifying pace through the opening rounds, but Patera was quickly able to match the non-stop output coming his way, his sharper combinations soon causing the more damage.
Hyland Jr, his forehead cut and bloodied, then touched down in the second after a cross right caught him clean before his kamikaze tactics saw him in deeper waters in the next.
Deserting his jab and marauding forward to wield in hooks in the third only served to make 'Hylo' an easy target for Patera, the technically astute Belgian hammering away to the body, the right hook causing further damage upstairs with staggering accuracy.
The one-way traffic continued from there despite Hyland Jr's valiant efforts and the fifth saw him down again, this time grimacing following a heavy body shot.
Two more visits to the canvas came in the sixth before the referee had seen enough.
