Andrew Moloney knocked out, video, reaction, hospital update, injuries, corner,

A “heartbroken” Andrew Moloney insists he would “rather go out on my back” than wonder what could have been after the Australian star was was brutally knocked out in the 12th round of his junior bantamweight world title fight against Junto Nakatani.

The undefeated Japanese knockout artist left Moloney flattened on the canvas with a thundering left hand, with Australian boxing great Jeff Fenech telling foxsports.com.au he felt “sick” watching it.

While Moloney put up a brave fight to take it to Nakatani until the very end, his rival had racked up a sizable lead on the scorecards to leave the Australian needing a knockout in the final round to steal an unlikely victory.

Having not shown any sign of doing just that though, Fenech said Moloney’s corner — led by Angelo Hyder — should have called off the fight before the 12th and final round.

Microphones in Moloney’s corner captured Hyder considering just that, telling Moloney he had not been listening to them and was taking too much damage.

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Moloney though, like many other fighters would, insisted he was fine and almost lasted the entire round before being knocked out by the Japanese southpaw with 18 seconds left.

Despite the horrifying finish, Moloney would take it over throwing in the towel.

“I’m all good,” Moloney told Main Event’s Ben Damon after the fight.

“Just heartbroken I couldn’t get the job done.

“Would rather go out on my back trying than live wondering what could have happened.

“So that’s what happened unfortunately.”

Moloney’s brother Jason also paid a heartfelt tribute to his brother on social media.

“So proud of you @AndrewMoloney,” Jason wrote on Twitter.

“Not the result we were after but I couldn’t be prouder of your effort.

“Many have avoided Nakatani but Andrew took him head on and gave it everything he had. A true warrior!

“You’ll be back and I’ll be by your side till the end. Love ya bro.”

Although Moloney put in a valiant effort against his rival, Fenech believed the corner should have stopped the fight long before the 12th round.

“Look the kid wasn’t going to win,” Fenech said.

“What you need to do is preserve the kid for the next couple of fights because he fought a very good champion. You don’t need to be hit another 100 times.

“This is on my father’s grave and I was sitting here with my wife and son saying, ‘I wish he would’ve stopped it, it can take just one punch’. I didn’t think it was going to happen until he got knocked out but you can take one punch too many… it was sickening, this kid will never be the same from it, you know.

“The corner was so terrible. All you should be doing is looking after the kid… you just say to the fighter, ‘I know you’re going to hate me for this but…