Ashton ‘H2O’ Sylve made an emphatic return to the knockout column.
The first career distance fight for the 19-year-old lightweight was followed by a highlight-reel, fourth-round knockout of Brazil’s William Silva. Sylve twice floored Silva, the latter of which produced a full ten-count from referee Ruben Perez to end the bout at 2:59 of round four on the undercard of a DAZN/ESPN+/PPV.com Pay-Per-View event Saturday from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
The bout was fought at a measured pace in the opening round before Sylve raised the stakes. A body shot by the Long Beach, California native forced Silva to fall to his knees and then roll over on the canvas. The Florida-based Brazilian managed to beat the count and make it out of the round but fell into an early hole.
Sylve continued to consistently land power shots in round three. Silva attempted to establish his own body attack but was twice warned for low blows and unable to land anything of consequence.
The confidence of Sylve was flowing in round four, though never more so than in the closing seconds to produce the end of the bout. Straight right hands consistently landed for Sylve but it was another left hook to the body that put Silva down for the full ten count.
Silva suffered his earliest exit as he fell to 30-5 (18KOs). He was stopped in the sixth round of a 2018 fight versus then-unbeaten contender Teofimo Lopez and in the fifth-round versus Arnold Barboza in 2019.
Sylve advanced to 10-0 (9KOs). All nine knockouts have come in four rounds or less, though this was the deepest he’d gone to put away an opponent. It came less than three months after going the eight-round distance in a landslide win over Adam Kipenga atop a May 27 prospect-based DAZN show from Orlando, Florida.
Also on the show, Chris Avila (4-1, 0KOs) outpointed Jeremy Stephens (0-1-1) over six rounds in a battle between MMA fighters with pro boxing experience. Judges David Iacobucci (59-55), Ellis Johnson (60-54) and Patrick Morley (59-55) scored for Avila, a stablemate of former MMA star Nate Diaz who makes his pro boxing debut versus Jake Paul (7-1, 6KOs) in the evening’s main event.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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