Lewis’ third title defence at the Sovereign Centre in Reading, Pennsylvania, ended in the fifth round with Lewis hitting the canvas, for the first loss in a sparkling and historic professional career.

It was sweet revenge for promoter Don King whom Lewis had left, then had knocked out the King’s James Page to give Guyana the country’s first world title.

King said of Mayorga: He overcame Goliath. Our Saviour rises tomorrow, but he sent a message tonight. Mayorga struck a blow, struck a blow indeed.

It was clear King was still bitter about Lewis leaving him then becoming a world champion under his nose. King declared: “I think Six was good, but it just shows that all youngsters cannot blame everybody else when something happens to them. He was a product of misguided emotions. You don’t stab someone in the back like that.

The promoter launched a blistering verbal assault on the former champion’s management after the fight.

But before the fight, it was clear that Lewis would have had a hard time for this defence, although his camp believed he was never more ready.

‘Sixhead’ went into the ring for his third defence of the WBA welterweight belt, looking literally lean, with no evidence of a gramme of fat; but his face appeared unusually drawn and tired.

In the dressing room, Lewis was his usual calm self and Team Sixhead was high in spirit, exuding confidence, seemingly unworried by the challenger.

Mayorga entered the ring with a black robe, trimmed with white and a black headband, prancing around to intermittent boos. His introduction was greeted with more boos.

Sixhead’s arrival was greeted with whistles, his head tied with a scarf sporting the colours of the Golden Arrowhead. He wore a blue and red robe. There was loud applause and whistles when he was introduced.

After the first gong, Six was first in, pawing jabs. Mayorga rushed in brawling-style. Six evaded his shots, but he landed a right to Six’s head. Six responded with a combination to head then dug a kidney shot. Chronicle Sport gave Six that round.

From round two, Mayorga was in with wild swings to head, forcing Six to clinch early.

Then Mayorga landed a right hook to head. Six connected with a few solid shots to head, with Mayorga on the ropes. Mayorga ended with a solid right hook to head, tagging Six to convincingly take the round.

Southpaw Six continued pawing jabs, as Mayorga sent an uppercut. He was now oozing with confidence and, holed up in a neutral corner, invited Six to come and get him. Six took the bait and Mayorga slipped out magnificently to land a right hook. Six did land some jabs and one and two headshots, but it was the challenger’s round again.

Early in round four, Mayorga landed a solid left hook to head. The crowd shouted for Six and he responded with a solid left-right combination to head. But Mayorga ended the round with a left hook to head, probably an indication of what was to follow in the next round.

Within a minute of the fifth round, Mayorga sent Lewis back-peddling, with left to head, landed another left, and followed with two left-rights, sending Lewis to the canvas. The former champion was up in the count, but referee Rudy Battle stopped the fight in 1:08 of the round, after Six seemingly shook his head negatively.

It was evident that Lewis was spent and dehydrated. He took more than an hour to produce a urine sample for the mandatory drugs test.

Chronicle Sport asked manager Nelson Fernandes what went wrong after eight weeks of intense training in camp. Fernandes said: “I thought that maybe the stoppage was a little premature, but I said before, that I rather lose this battle and not the war.

“But Six will be back. Six is a warrior. He showed tonight that he is a great boxer-puncher. Our plan was to take him (Mayorga) into deep, deep waters, meaning nine, ten, eleventh round, and then take him out, then he (Sixhead) got caught.”

The manager disclosed that he spoke to the WBA supervisor at the fight and got the commitment that the former champion would only drop three or four places in the ranking.

Fightnews has already dropped him to number ten. I know he will be back and he will be champion again, Fernandes declared. But he ruled out ‘Sixhead’ going up in weight.

Said he: “No. No need to. We made this weight very easily. He was at 147 pounds for a few days. So he has no problems with 147 pounds. He ate very well for the whole week. He trained and he was on his weight. There is no need to go to 154 pounds.”

‘Sixhead’ will be away from the gym for 30 days for a well-deserved rest and then will be back to re-establish himself at the top of world boxing.

The former champion seemed to be in control already. Said he of the loss: “That’s life.”

(Isaiah Chappelle’s coverage of the fight has been made possible through North American Airlines, Woon-A-Tai Shell Service Station, Kashif & Shanghai Incorporated, Kei-Shar’s Hampton View Inn, Friendship, ECD and Carib Malta).