Steve Spark (16-2, 14 KOs) says he’s not sure if he’ll take a rematch with Montana Love (18-1-1, 9 KOs) after beating him by a sixth round disqualification last Saturday night at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland.
Spark, 26, would be willing to take a rematch with Love if it makes sense financially and depending on the fight’s location. It appears that Spark might want the rematch to take place in his native Australia if it’s going to happen.
Love was disqualified for shoving Spark out of the ring during the sixth round after suffering a cut over his left eye from a clash of heads during the round.
Some would say that Love was frustrated at the direction the fight was heading in and chose to shove purposefully Spark out of the ring to be disqualified to save himself from being knocked out in front of his own fans in Cleveland.
Two of the judges had the fight scored as a draw, and the third had Love up by two points. It appeared that Spark was ahead at the time of the DQ, as he’d knocked Love down in the second and had fought well enough to win three of the rounds.
Promoter Eddie Hearn says he’d like to do a rematch between Love and Spark, but he’ll have to see. For the time being, Hearn is hoping the Ohio commissioner will change the ruling from a disqualification loss for Love to a no contest. The ruling could happen this week.
“People go about Montana but can punch hard, and he’s got good power, and he was respectable out there,” said Steve Spark last Saturday night, speaking to the media following his win over Montana Love.
“I don’t know. It has to make sense,” said Spark when asked if he’ll agree to a rematch with Montana. “It has to make sense monetarily and the venue. I come into his backyard. There are a lot of rich people in Australia right now. One of my friends just won twenty grand in Australia.
“What I’m saying is, no one gave me a chance in this fight. No one in my team and a few people back home, and there were people in Australia that didn’t give me a chance in this fight.
“I just said, ‘I told you so. I told everybody I was going to win this fight,’ and I have. To be honest, I’ve never even watched Richardson Hitchens fight.
“Secondly, there are some huge names out there, like you said, Teofimo, Jose Pedraza-Rodriguez fight; I was training alongside them against Regis Prograis in my camp here.
“There are some good, good fights out there, and I’m in a good position now, and I’ve got the best promoter, Eddie Hearn, leading the way for me now and the best trainer/manager Brendon Smith. So we’ll see what’s next.
“There are endless possibilities. England, I want to go to England to fight. I’ve been away from home for a bit now, and I can’t wait to get home and have a beer.
“I thought I was winning, yeah,” said Spark when told that two of the judges had it even 47-47 and the third had Montana winning 48-46. “With the five and the knockdown and one other round, I thought I won. So that’s three points. I thought I was up 3 to 2.
“I moved up to fight at welterweight against Jack Brubaker because, during Covid, there was no one to fight, and he was the #1 welterweight in Australia at the time. I stepped up because I couldn’t get a fight.
“For this one here, I was thinking, ‘I hate doing a weight cut,’ but once I get down, I’m fine. So I think I’ll stay at 140 for now and see what happens. 158 lbs,” said Spark when asked how much he weighed for the Montana right after rehydrating.
