A visibly frustrated Montana Love appeared purposefully to throw Steve Spark out of the ring in the sixth round last Saturday night, resulting in the referee disqualifying him for that action.
Love couldn’t handle the pressure or the power from Spark, and as a result, it looked like he tapped out to get out of the fight by showing him out of the ring in what some boxing fans saw as a move to get himself disqualified.
Love was knocked down in the second, hurt in the fifth, and took big shots from Spark in the sixth before he threw him out of the ring in a professional wrestling type of move.
Leading up to the incident in the sixth, Love (18-1-1, 9 KOs) was getting worked over by the hard-hitting Spark (16-2, 14 KOs), and it was clear that the power of the Australian was too much for him to handle.
Montana’s promoter Eddie Hearn rejected the notion that Love had intentionally shoved Spark out of the ring and said that he plans on appealing the DQ to the Ohio Commission on Monday to have it overturned.
“It was a bad decision,” said Hearn about Love’s disqualification. “Montana was rough, but he didn’t intentionally throw him out of the ring, and Steve got back into the ring and wanted to keep fighting. Referees have a tough job, but that was a poor decision, and one made too quickly.
“It was turning into a great fight; the commission will review it, I would love to do it again.”
It might not go in Love’s favor with the Commission, so it would be good for Hearn to negotiate with Spark’s management to set up a rematch.
At this point, the boxing world saw the fight, and many believe that Love intentionally tapped out by throwing Spark out of the ring to get disqualified. So even if the Ohio commission gives Hearn what he wants in overturning the DQ loss, the fans will still believe that Love intentionally threw Spark out of the ring.
A rematch might not do anything for Love because he’s not good enough to beat Spark, and if they fight again, we’ll see him struggle.
For Love, this was his third consecutive poor performance with Matchroom. He looked terrible in his two previous fights, and this was supposed to be a fight where he had a better chance of shining.
