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John Hopoate has vowed to return to the US and make amends for his embarrassing second-round knockout against 44-year-old heavyweight Oliver McCall at the weekend.

Hopoate landed in Sydney on Tuesday and said there was no way he was going to hang up the gloves and, if anything, was more driven than ever to succeed in the ring.

"It's hard for me to explain why I lost and I've got no excuses," said Hopoate, whose shot at the big time lasted less than five minutes after he was flattened by McCall in Las Vegas.

"What I'm most dirty about is not that I lost but the fact I didn't fight the fight I wanted to.

"I'm a brawler, I'm not a boxer, and my head was telling me to go forward in that second round but I was going backwards. All it has done is make me more determined to succeed. I consider this a slip-up in my career. I want to get back there and prove I wasn't over there for a holiday."

Hopoate hoped the short-lived stint in the ring would not make him an automatic write-off with US promoters and said there had already been requests about a possible return for future bouts.

The 34-year-old father of eight admitted time was not on his side but said he still had plenty to offer to the sport with 11 wins from just 14 fights.

His manager Dave Millward last night said Hopoate's personality and the power he produced in sparring sessions had not gone unnoticed.