Zou Shiming's world title dream in tatters after shock defeat by Amnat Ruenroeng

Zou Shiming's aura of invincibility was shattered last night when he was defeated for the first time as a professional, blowing his hopes of a world title as he lost to Thai rival Amnat Ruenroeng.

Zou and Amnat met for the fourth time in their careers, with Zou leading 2-1 in amateur bouts, but the Thai champion levelled the score in the best possible way as he retained his International Boxing Federation (IBF) world flyweight title at the Macao Venetian Cotai Arena in the Showdown at Sands bill.

"This is just awesome, just awesome. We beat the Chinese boxer on his own doorstep," said Stanley Beard, one of Amnat's trainers after the fight. "We thought we would win by a bigger margin. He fought a great fight."

In an uneventful, anti-climactic main event, Zou failed to fire despite the urgings of a capacity crowd and was ultimately a huge disappointment. The two-time Olympic champion fought a cautious fight and, at times, appeared not to want to engage Amnat, who remained undefeated with his 15th straight professional victory. Judges scored it an identical 116-111 in favour of Amnat, who hugged Zou at the end.

Earlier, Hong Kong star Rex Tso Sing-yu described his less-than-convincing unanimous points victory against Filipino surprise package Michael Enriquez as the most exhausting of his life as he earned a world title fight on the undercard.

It almost went pear-shaped for the Wonder Kid, who had to endure a ferocious onslaught from the diminutive Filipino towards the end of the 10-round contest for the World Boxing Association (WBA) international super flyweight title.