Michael Gomez Jr stopped Lee McGregor after six rounds of a controversial lightweight bout in Doncaster, ending a day McGregor had hoped would finish in celebration. Hours after Celtic retained their title with a 3-1 win, Gomez Jr closed out the fight with a flurry of punches midway through the scheduled 12 rounds.
McGregor, 29, had been looking to rebuild his career a year after a devastating knockout defeat by Nathaniel Collins. He came into the contest hoping for a double celebration, with Heart of Midlothian going toe-to-toe with Celtic for the Scottish Premiership title on the same day he was due in the ring.
The fight had a charged edge before the opening bell. Gomez Jr motioned to head butt McGregor in the ring before the start of the contest, a flashpoint that matched the rest of the evening’s volatility and set the tone for a bout that never settled into a rhythm.
For McGregor, the timing made the result sting even more. He was trying to put the Collins defeat behind him and draw a line under a difficult stretch in his career, but the loss in Doncaster leaves him with another setback and no clean answer to the question of what comes next.
What happened in Doncaster was more than a straight defeat. It was a reminder that McGregor’s rebuild remains unfinished, and that on a day he had marked for two celebrations, both slipped away before the final bell.
