By Cliff Rold
29-year old 2008 Russian Middleweight Olympian Sergiy Derevyanchenko (6-0, 4 KO), 159, of Brooklyn, New York, won a lopsided decision in eight rounds over 34-year old former title challenger Elvin Ayala (28-7-1, 12 KO), 161, of New Haven, Connecticut in the main event on Friday night at Bally’s in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The referee was Sparkle Lee.
Derevyanchenko was workmanlike from the start. Jabbing and pressing the fight, he kept Ayala on the back foot and patiently upped the punishment through the first three rounds. Ayala would occasionally reply with salvos but they were too few.
Little changed in the rest of the fight. Ayala’s output wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t landing much. Derevyanchenko didn’t seem to be able to hurt him until late in the eighth when Ayala appeared to be fading as much from attrition as anything. Derevyanchenko won by earned scores of 80-71 (twice) and 80-72.
Ayala, who challenged Arthur Abraham for the IBF Middleweight bout in 2008, lasts the distance in defeat for the first time since 2009. His last two losses were first round stops at the hands of current IBF titlist David Lemieux and former title challenger Curtis Stevens.
26-year old 2012 Ukrainian Olympian and 2011 World Amateur Champion Ievgen Khytrov (11-0, 10 KO), 159, of Brooklyn, New York, continued his rise in the professional Middleweight ranks with a second straight tough night. After being forced the distance for the first time in his last outing, Khytrov was forced to come from behind and pulled it off with a stoppage in the final round on an intriguing clash with 27-year old Nick Brinson (17-4-2, 7 KO), 159, of Albany, New York. It was Brinson’s third loss inside the distance and third loss in his last four starts.
The referee was Earl Brown.
Brinson, fighting tall, seemed to give Khytrov pause in the first with a sharp left jab. Khytrov circled the ring for much of the round, surveying the landscape. The Ukrainian went into his typical aggressive posture in the second and put more leather on Brinson but the quicker Brinson held his own and appeared to land the cleaner punches in exchanges.
For all the pressure he was applying, Khytrov continued to struggle to land clean as Brinson got there first and flush when he let his hands go. A frustrated Khytrov was warned for pushing Brinson into the rope early in the fourth. With a bruise under his right eye, Khytrov started to jab more and went heavy to the body but inconsistently. It might have been enough to win the fourth but Brinson’s quicker hands and better accuracy stood out in the fifth.
Khytrov had a big swing in his favor in the sixth. Falling behind again in the round, the heavy-handed battler put Brinson in duress near the ropes and took advantage for the second half of the round. With six minutes to go, there was plenty of drama at hand.
Nearing the minute mark in round seven, Khytrov hurt Brinson again but the American would not fall. Sliding, holding, and moving, Brinson looked to survive, occasionally looping a counter in Khytrov direction. Both men had their mouths wide open for air in the corner before the start of the closing stanza.
Khytrov came right out after Brinson. Rights hands shortly had Brinson wobbling but a fatigued Khytrov seemed to ease off. Brinson started to fire again, landing some long rights. Khytrov landed a big left hand in an exchange and hurt Brinson again, this time finding the answer he’d sought all night. Brinson took a knee, intentionally it seemed, as his legs swayed beneath him. Brown waved it off seeing a beaten man on the floor at 2:31 of the eighth round.
Brinson was leading on two of the three official scorecards at the time of the stoppage and, had he survived the round, would have won the fight. However, judge Tony Perez turned in a jaw dropping bad scorecard that awarded a 10-8 round to Brinson in the seventh. Khytrov saves himself from an egregious scoring controversy and continues to build from an Olympic disappointment where he lost a tiebreaker decision in his opening Olympic fight to eventual Bronze Medalist, and local British favorite, Anthony Ogogo.
The televised opener came in the Jr. Welterweight division.
26-year old Regis Prograis (15-0, 12 KO), 139, of Houston, Texas, went eight rounds for the first time as a professional, throwing over 100 punches per round en route to a unanimous decision over gutsy 25-year old Amos Cowart (11-1-1, 9 KO), 139, of Groveland, Florida. The referee was Sparkle Lee.
Prograis, quicker, more accurate, and more fundamentally sound, won the first two rounds but Cowart would wing to get closer. Cowart landed a heavy shot to start the third and settled into a willingness to take combinations of blows for a chance to land a right hand. Marching forward and talking trash, Cowart was taking a game beating. By the end of the fourth, Cowart’s nose was a bloody mess.
The fight continued on a similar track for the next three rounds with the effort of Cowart gradually showing on the face of Prograis. A mouse formed under the right eye of Prograis and a Cowart assault bloodied his nose at the end of a fast-paced seventh.
Cowart, believing he’d stunned Prograis at the end of the previous round started the final frame on the attack. With both men’s nostrils shedding crimson, they plugged away to the applause of the fans. Prograis carried the bout by scores of 79-71 and a pair of shutout 80-72 tallies.
The card was broadcast in the US on Showtime as part of its “ShoBox” series, promoted by DiBella Entertainment.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com