American Carson Jones caught Rose cold in the very first round at Winter Gardens to inflict a third career knockout on the Briton, whilst most of the afterthoughts were on the timing of the finish by the third man in the ring.
John-Lewis stepped in to save Rose with just over 20 seconds left of the opening session without Rose having been put down despite Jones catching him with several clean shots. The 30 year-old was covering up, but was having trouble finding his legs and John-Lewis decided not to give ‘The Lion’ the benefit of the doubt and handed Jones his first UK win.
Rose’s head cleared almost immediately upon his realisation that the fight was over, although his disgust was clear as he refused to hold the referee’s hand at the final decision before storming off to the dressing room punching and kicking objects on his way.
Afterwards, Rose questioned why John-Lewis didn’t give a little more time to recover from some solids shots aimed at his head by Jones and could now be given an immediate rematch by promoter Eddie Hearn.
Jones, 28, made it fourth time lucky on his return to Britain following two defeats by Kell Brook either side of a draw with Dean Byrne and should have no reason to turn down a second helping against Rose after notching a 27th career KO in 37 victories.
