A distraught Jai Opetaia was left speechless after he departed the Commonwealth Games boxing tournament following a lacklustre performance in his heavyweight (91kg) bout with Nigeria's Efetobor Apochi.
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It was a largely difficult day for Australia in the SECC ring before women's lightweight Shelley Watts flew the flag late with a barnstorming stoppage of Isabelle Ratna from Mauritius to move through to the semi-finals in blistering style.
Earlier, Opetaia was too upset to speak with the media after the unanimous decision, in which he won the first round but faded badly as his more physical opponent wore him down over the final two rounds.
It looked as if Opetaia had the superior skillset in the opening round but even then the Australian looked like a man without a game plan. The few bodyshots he threw all found a home and he should have sought that target more.
By the time he came out for the second, Apochi was able to bully him around the ring and land heavy shots, which were clearly having an impact as Opetaia leaned all over his opponent and appeared to be completely out of petrol.
The Australian tried to rally in the final round but his counters off the ropes were ineffectual and Apochi was given a deserved decision and a spot in the semi-finals.
Australian boxing coach Don Abnett was left stunned as one of his medal hopes melted away.
"I don't know what happened. He prepared well. He put in 10 weeks of hard prep in for this. He didn't just get it together," Abnett said. "His opponent was physically strong and took the ground off Jai and Jai couldn't get in his rhythm."
The day had already started on a sour note, with welterweight Daniel Lewis ruled out of the competition after failing to recover in time from a cut suffered in his round of 16 win over Kehinde Ademuyiwa (Nigeria) on Monday.
The 21-year-old said his dream had been ruined and called for headguards to be reinstated immediately after AIBA, the sport's governing body, did away with them last year.
"For all these people debating about headgear for amateurs, bring the headgear back 100 per cent. When you have to fight five times in a week this shit ruins people’s dreams,” Lewis said.
“My journey is over. Got up at 6am this morning to lose weight. I made it and was ready to go to war only to be told by the doctor my journey is over. They won’t let me fight with the cut. I had two fights, two comfortable wins with one TKO and a stupid elbow ruins it all."
Kristy Harris went down in her flyweight quarter final to Canadian Mandy Bujold. Harris opted to stand and exchange with her heavy hitting opponent and came out on the wrong end of almost every exchange, with Bujold carrying a straightforward unanimous points decision.
But Watts ended the session in fine style, completely dominating Ratna and sailing through to the medal rounds. She blasted away with unanswered shots to the head and body, with the referee giving the completely outmatched Ratna two standing counts in the first round.
The onslaught continued in the second before Ratna's corner threw in the towel.
