Teenage heavyweight starlet Moses Itauma was taken the distance for the first time in his career by teak-tough Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko in London.
Itauma, the world youth amateur champion, took a combined total of just 58 seconds to get rid of his first two professional opponents.
But Dovbyschenko, who had lost 12 before tonight without ever being stopped, was always expected to provide Itauma with some rounds at least.
And so it proved as the Ukrainian soaked up endless heavy shots to the head and body as 18-year-old Itauma went through the gears in search of a stoppage.
The 31-year-old remains the only man to have taken Kazakhstan’s Zhan Kossobutskiy the distance and he had no intention of an early night here at the Copper Box, London.
A couple of particularly sharp left hands from southpaw Itauma had sent the visitor staggering backwards on a few occasions but he never really looked in any trouble.
Itauma appeared to complain of a hand injury before the start of the sixth round but he was still throwing with both throughout the three minutes that followed.
However there would be no stoppage for Itauma, who instead had the opportunity to show some of the skills which have marked him out as perhaps the most exciting young fighter in the sport.
Itauma says his goal is to beat Mike Tyson’s record of 20 years and four months as the youngest world heavyweight champion in history and he now has two years and a month to do that.
Whether he gets anywhere near that goal is a matter for the future but whatever happens, these rounds against the production manager from a factory in the Ukraine will be very valuable to his development.
Itauma said: “I feel like I boxed ok. I could’ve gone better and now I have to go back to the drawing board.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t get him out of there. I train really hard and I never look to go the distance. I want to put on a show.
“In the fourth round I hurt my lead hand and because I’m a right-handed southpaw I couldn’t get my measuring stick.
“Hopefully in my next fight I’ll show some improvement. I want another step-up next time.”
Earlier, Sam Noakes did manage to keep up his 100 per cent KO record as he took out Karthik Kumar after 1:17 of the second round.
Lightweight Noakes, who is now 11-0, dropped Kumar twice before referee John Latham waved it off.
He said: “To be honest I caught him with a few good shots in the first round. I saw he was hurt and I thought ‘I want an early night’ so I went for it.
“I’d like to challenge for the British before the end of the year. I’m still learning, we’ve got things to work on. I’m just enjoying the journey.”