Veteran Wade Ryan, now 35 years old, was named by Tim Tszyu as one of his toughest assignments but he looked his age against Mounir Fathi, 9-1 (9 KOs), who celebrated his third-round KO victory with two backflips inside Sydney's Hordern Pavilion.

Junior middleweight Fathi, five years Ryan’s junior and with significantly fewer miles on the clock, opened quickly and shook his opponent with a right hand after scoring to the body. The pressure increased significantly in the third, with Fathi walking down his foe and setting up his thudding right hand with an accurate lead. It was a right hand that effectively ended matters, dropping Ryan to his knee where he opted to take the full count.

Afterwards, Fathi called out Michael Zerafa while Ryan, 22-13-1 (8 KOs), indicated that might have been his last fight.

Also on the No Limit show was a clash of unbeaten boxers at lightweight in which the confident and flashy Charlie Kazzi overcame some tricky moments – largely triggered when Patrick Vella fired the uppercut – to win an entertaining eight-rounder on the cards.

Kazzi, 9-0 (4 KOs), was in control for large portions of the bout as he jabbed with authority and had plenty of success with raids to the body. Yet Vella, not short of confidence himself, rallied in the last two rounds, catching Kazzi with an overhand right in the eighth and loading up until the final bell when he threw his arms into the air in celebration. The scores, however, were all in favor of Kazzi (79-73 twice and 77-75) as Vella dropped to 2-1.