Olympic gold medal winner Luke Campbell had been dropped in the past, by Jorge Linares and Vasiliy Lomachenko, but says he was never hit by anything that was harder than Ryan Garcia's body shot.
On Saturday night, Campbell appeared to be on his way to victory when he landed a left hand that put Garcia down hard in the second round, before a stunned crowd at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas.
Garcia was shaken, but way able to recover by the following round and regained control of the entire fight as the contest played out.
During the seventh round, Garcia landed a crushing hook to the liver of Campbell - who went down with a slightly delayed reaction.
Campbell went down in pain to a knee and then went down to both knees, as the referee counted him out.
Campbell was able to recover when put down in the past. He was not as lucky this time around.
“That was the hardest shot I was ever hit with," Campbell said. "I tried and tried to get up, but I couldn’t. I felt him coming on, and I was moving back, and when you move back, my body relaxed a little bit and that’s the exact time he hit me.”
The outcome marked the first stoppage defeat for the British boxer. It also made Garcia a legitimate threat and future star in the weight division.
Garcia walked away with the WBC's interim-lightweight title - which makes him the mandatory challenger to world champion Devin Haney, who also has another mandatory defense on the table with Javier Fortuna.