By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Also Saturday night, Patrick Day out-boxed veteran Elvin Ayala to win a unanimous decision in a 10-round, 154-pound bout.

Day (16-2-1, 6 KOs), of Freeport, New York, won all 10 rounds on the scorecards of Hazzard (100-90) and Allen Nace (100-90), and nine rounds, according to judge John Stewart (99-91). The 26-year-old Day also retained the WBC Continental Americas super welterweight title.

The 37-year-old Ayala, of New Haven, Connecticut, slipped to 1-6 in his past seven fights (29-12-1, 13 KOs).

Following Day’s victory, Russian welterweight prospect Radzhab Butaev stopped Panama’s Azael Cosio after the third round of a scheduled 10-rounder.

Butaev, who wobbled Cosio with a straight right hand late in the second round, battered a courageous Cosio throughout the third round. A New York State Athletic Commission physician examined Cosio in his corner following that third round and instructed referee Eddie Claudio to stop the fight.

Butaev, 24, improved to 10-0 and recorded his eighth knockout. Cosio, 37, lost by knockout or technical knockout for the sixth time and fell to 21-8-2 (18 KOs, 1 NC).

David Oliver Joyce seemed well on his way to a first-round knockout Saturday night.

The 2016 Olympian from Ireland was faced with an unbelievably tough opponent, though, a determined Mexican who wouldn’t go down. Jorge Rojas Zacazontetl even dropped Joyce late in the second round.

Joyce showed some resilience of his own by getting off the canvas, regaining control of their six-round fight and winning a unanimous decision on the Daniel Jacobs-Sergiy Derevyanchenko undercard in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. All three judges – Larry Hazzard Jr. (58-53), Kevin Morgan (58-53) and Alan Rubinstein (58-54) – scored their fight for the 31-year-old Joyce (9-0, 7 KOs).

Joyce knocked down Zacazontetl in the first round, but Zacazontetl came back to drop him late in the second round. The third and fourth rounds were competitive, but Joyce battered Zacazontetl with an array of power punches during the second half of the fifth round.

Zacazontetl displayed remarkable toughness by remaining on his feet as Joyce hammered him and somehow made it to the sixth round. The 28-year-old Zacazontetl (4-5-1, 2 KOs) still lost a fourth straight fight.

Earlier Saturday night, another 2016 Olympian, Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov, stopped Tyrell Wright following four mostly one-sided rounds in a heavyweight bout scheduled for six rounds. Jalolov, 24, improved to 3-0 and recorded his third knockout.

Jalolov knocked down Wright in the fourth round. Wright also absorbed a lot of flush punches from the bigger, stronger southpaw once he got up from that knockdown in the fourth round.

Referee Harvey Dock stopped the action before the fifth round began. The 31-year-old Wright (9-3-2, 6 KOs), of Jersey City, New Jersey, lost by knockout or technical knockout for the first time in his six-year pro career.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.