CALLUM SMITH handed Josh Buatsi the first defeat of his career with an age-defying performance of brilliant brutality and courage.
The Liverpool light-heavyweight hero looked close to retirement after punishing losses to Canelo Alvarez and Artur Beterbiev left him beaten and adrift.
But he stood up to the tough Ghana-born favourite, sucked up all of his best shots and won a unanimous decision.
The three ringside judges had the horrible job of splitting the two marvellous men – with Steve Gray going far too wide – and decided: 119-110, 115-113 and 116-112.
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Despite both light-heavy beanpoles being tall and technical range-fighters, the best action of the opener was up close and personal.
The pair clinches and swapped hooks like little Mexicans.
Buatsi, 31, scored with a hook double to head and body but then Mundo landed a left hook to the ribs that echoed around the Riyadh arena.
Smith was bundled down once but it was rightly called a split that didn’t need a count.
Smith, 34, made a bright start to the second and made his ringside family roar with clever uppercuts.
But a Buatis left hook clipped his cheekbone and silenced the travelling Scousers and another even round followed.
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By the third round, former super-middle world champ Smith was using his superior experience and reach to score from a safe distance.
But then Buatsi peppered him with body blows toward the end of the session and for a second it seemed like Smith was folding to the canvas.
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Typically he dug deep and held on, even landing a long right hand before the bell.
In the fourth round, the two brilliant Englishmen glued their foreheads together and went to war.
Hooks slashed in from both sides as their torsos took a leather but it was Smith who walked back to his corner with a cut and welt around his right eye.
Smith enjoyed his best round in the fifth after Buatsi made a horrible start. The Croydon ace spent the first two minutes tucked up in his shell, absorbing blows on his tight guard.
His only respite came when a blow blew the mouthguard out of his mouth.
Smith totally dominated the session and Buatsi needed a drastic change of pace.
But it was Smith who raced up the gears, battering Buatsi throughout the sixth, with referee Howard Foster looking on the cusp of a stoppage.
Suddenly, with ten seconds left of the one-sided beating, Buatsi landed a huge left hook and it was Smith who was buzzed and struggling and glad to hear the bell.
Both warriors needed a breather in the seventh and took a break from the brutal hooks and right hands they had swapped.
They exchanged long and safe jabs and recuperated, it was a well-earned rest in a superb fight that was almost impossible to split.
Buatsi ate three scything right hands in the eighth that forced him backwards but, just before the bell, it was Smith who had to stagger backwards, onto the ropes, when he was tagged back with a reverse one-two.
In round nine, Buatsi completely gave up defending against Smith’s right hand and was peppered with the same predictable blow to make it a clear round for the 30-2 veteran.
In serious danger of drowning in the desert, Buatsi turned the tide in the tenth and ran away with the round with clinical combinations, thrown from angles.
But when he got greedy Smith shot back with that right and bought himself another round.
Smith’s daddy-long legs started to betray him in the eleventh, when Buatsi’s fresher engine started to make him look the most likely winner.
But both heroes kept punching and ducking and digging deeper and deeper.
They hugged before the start of the 12th, it was boxing perfection, the best of Britain.
Smith was forced into the backfoot but it was from there that he landed a right hand and left hook that wobbled Buatsi.
It was Smith’s turn to lose his gum shield with 50 seconds to go but there was enough time for both magnificent men to finish with a gunfight.
Smith’s team, led by brother Paul, raced into the ring to celebrate and Callum climbed the corner turnbuckles to wave victoriously to the crowd.
The pair embraced and waited for the judges to decide that Smith was back among the light-heavyweight world title race.
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