JOE Fitzpatrick won 10 of 11 pro fights after winning Commonwealth Games silver for Ireland, while Kallum Skhane boxed for Wales around the world as an amateur.
They fought each other with bare fists in Cardiff on Saturday night.
Bareknuckle boxing has given them another way to make a career out of fighting.
It just hurts much more.
Skhane and Fitzpatrick were only in the three-sided trigon – measured at 30 feet from point to point – for four minutes, 48 seconds.
By the time the fight was waved off, Fitzpatrick, beaten only by Gary Cully in his pro career, was cut on his left cheek, his right eyebrow and had been pounded to his knees three times.
Fitzpatrick probably would have dragged himself up and carried on fighting had the towel not come in from his corner.
Because in bareknuckle boxing, victory is only ever one swing away.
In the most dramatic fight at a sold-out Vale Sports Arena on Saturday night, Ash Williams, bronze medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Wales and a 1-0 pro before becoming disillusioned with a lack of fights, proved that much.
Down twice inside the opening minute, Williams flattened Joe Randall with a right and it was all over in 142 seconds.
Williams turned to bareknuckle boxing at 33 years old, while Skhane is six years younger.
Both say they will fight more regularly without gloves – and will be pushed along quicker.
Skhane said after improving to 2-0 in the trigon he wants to be a world champion and fight in America and that is more likely to happen – and happen sooner – if he sticks with BYB Extreme.
Barrie Jones has gone on to carve out a successful bareknuckle career after a 22-10 pro gloved career that peaked with a loss to Kell Brook for the British welterweight title in 2008.
Fighting a month before his 40th birthday, Jones took only 17 seconds to finish light-heavyweight champion Gregoris Cisneros, a result that puts the Welsh southpaw up with the top pound-for-pound bareknuckle boxers.
Jones, who fought on Joe Calzaghe undercards, unleashed a perfectly-timed southpaw right hook to put the Venezuelan on his knees for around a minute.
Dorian Darch, the cult heavyweight beaten by Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois and Hughie Fury in his gloved career, blasted out Gaz Slator in the first round. In the 38 seconds the fight lasted, Darch was cut on his cheek before blasting out the Newcastle brawler with a left-right-left.
