Brandon Adams looked like he might have been fading out of the fight against Serhii Bohachuk, but then he shook Bohachuk with a big shot in the eighth round, and finished him off with a monstrous left hook, rallying for a come-from-behind knockout win.
The Ring City USA main event was the good matchmaking we hoped and expected it would be, and the veteran Adams (23-3, 15 KO) became the man to sort of “find out” the previously unbeaten Bohachuk (18-1, 18 KO), who came in with a flawless record on paper, but had shown some defensive leakiness in prior fights.
That said, Bohachuk led on our card, 68-64, at the time of the stoppage, and the fight felt like it was going his way. It was an odd one in some respects, as Adams and Bohachuk both had some footing problems due to the humidity in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, dampening the ring to the point referee Ramon Pena had to begin using a mop between rounds.
The Adams corner also had their problems with Pena, who docked Adams a point in the third round due to low blows, having sternly warned him in the second. That made Adams a bit tentative about going back to the body, and Bohachuk seemed to be building steady if not spectacular momentum; by the time Adams landed his crushing finishing blow, he probably did need a knockout to win.
Bohachuk, 25, isn’t done from this or anything — far from it. This is something he can again hope to learn from, but the flaws in his game are pretty apparent, and even those in our live discussion who had Bohachuk winning comfortably by the numbers felt he was showing limitations.
Once Adams, 31, shook Bohachuk in that eighth round, he bit down and went for it, and the aggression paid off. The finishing blow was a nasty hook. To Bohachuk’s serious credit, he did get back to his feet, but his legs were gone, and referee Pena rightly stopped the fight.
“It was tough fighting in there tonight, the ring being wet, the referee wasn’t fucking with me tonight, so I had to fight uphill,” Adams said. “I just had to dig in deep and understand regardless of whatever was happening, it was me against them, and I had to embody that and use all the strength I had to connect one of those punches.”
It’s also worth noting Adams didn’t have his normal lead trainer, Dub Huntley, in his corner tonight
Adams didn’t make any big call-outs for his next fight, but this is a dangerous guy at 154 for almost anyone in that division. No one’s saying throw him in with Jermell Charlo or Brian Castano, but he would be a marvelous step-up foe for guys like Charles Conwell, Bakhram Murtazaliev, Israil Madrimov, Magomed Kurbanov, Souleymane Cissokho, or Tim Tszyu, if Tszyu gets past Dennis Hogan on Mar. 31. There are good-looking young fighters in this division who need tests, and Adams just showed he’s a serious test.
He may also want to hunt something bigger than that, of course, and I mean, Erislandy Lara could always use an opponent. Julian Williams needs to fight someone. Jarrett Hurd is just sitting around right now. Jeison Rosario is another person who has a name and is in this division.
Bryan Chevalier KO-3 Carlos Zambrano
26-year-old featherweight Chevalier (15-1-1, 12 KO) is emerging as a possible contender, already has gotten some sanctioning body attention. He does have a loss but it was in 2017, and he’s 7-0 (4 KO) in his last seven, dating back to 2018. He’s tall for the weight at 5’11”, and really generates some power from whipping his skinny arms, especially driving shots to the body, as we saw him do here.
Zambrano (26-2, 11 KO) hadn’t fought since the summer of 2017, when he was cracked in 90 seconds by Claudio Marrero, but he came to fight here, and the Peruvian vet gave it the effort. But he was ruled down in the first round, though it was a questionable knockdown. Far less question were two trips to the canvas in the third. He was dropped on a left hook to the body and then a shot to the head, and when he got up, Chevalier put him down for the count with another nasty body shot.
“I had the height and youth advantage, but he had the experience. I had to adapt to what he was going to do in the ring,” Chevalier said after the fight. “I’m happy with my performance, I’m the best 126-pounder in Puerto Rico right now.”
Asked what he wants to do next, Chevalier said, “I just have to keep working, I’ll leave that up to my trainers and managers to figure out. Whatever comes, comes.”
Danielito Zorrilla TD-8 Ruslan Madiyev
A fight where really at the end, the hope is that Zorrilla is OK, as this was stopped in the eighth round when he couldn’t continue after a blatant rabbit punch from Madiyev — the referee ruled it accidental and NBCSN’s Shawn Porter went to bat for Madiyev not doing it intentionally, but it looked pretty intentional from my point of view.
Madiyev had lost a point in the fifth round for shots behind the head, too. So when the fight was stopped in the eighth, it had to go to the cards, and Zorrilla got the split nod on scores of 77-74 and 77-75 in his favor, plus 76-73 for Madiyev from Steve Weisfeld, which is either a bizarre score, the wrong tallying, or Lupe Contreras getting it wrong on the announcement. (My guess is it was actually Weisfeld having it 78-73 Madiyev.)
Bad Left Hook wound up going 77-74 for Zorrilla, who improves to 15-0 (11 KO) as a 27-year-old junior lightweight, looking to move somewhat quickly at this point from prospect to contender. Madiyev (13-2, 5 KO) hadn’t fought since July 2019, and was able to bring some pressure and get himself into this fight, but the shots behind the head were not what you want to see.
I also want to say this: There will be people thinking Zorrilla “milked” this, and I remember when people thought Prichard Colon was “milking it” in 2015 against Terrel Williams. I’m just saying, to me, it’s not something to question if a fighter isn’t reacting well, and Zorrilla did not look good. Rabbit punches are about as damaging an illegal tactic as there is. To me, officials should be way more firm on it than they are already.
At last update, Zorrilla was taken to the hospital, and told Ring City’s Curran Bhatia he was OK on the way out of the venue, but Bhatia did add that Zorrilla’s “body language did not look good.”
- Fernando Vargas Jr TKO-1 Samuel Flores Torres: Flores Torres honestly looked like he’s barely ever trained to fight, though he’s now done so professionally three times. He’s a 36-year-old from El Salvador now based in Minnesota, and has never made it past the first round. This was his longest outing, though, going 2:13 with Vargas (2-0, 2 KO), who at 24 has some amateur experience, though he wasn’t a huge amateur standout, and has the bloodline and some good natural size (5’11”, 72-inch reach at 160), and is a southpaw. The name alone is going to open doors for him if he can so much as hold his own, let’s be real about that, but he isn’t some second generation doof just trading on a name or anything, either.
- Harold Laguna KO-1 Darwin Alvarez: Laguna, 21, is a lightweight prospect, made his pro debut a few weeks ago in San Juan, followed up quickly with another easy win here. He battered the debuting Alvarez to the body and finished things in just over two minutes. Laguna is now 2-0 (2 KO). He definitely did pop Alvarez with another hook as Alvarez was close to taking the knee, but it wasn’t intentional, just in the flow of things.
- Jorge Diaz KO-2 Felipe Munoz: A pair of pro debuts between two Puerto Rican welterweights. Diaz was doing the better work in round one, and then he caught Munoz open and walloped him with a counter left hook early in the second. Munoz went down hard and that was that, he wasn’t getting up. Man was on the proverbial Dream Street. Diaz is 20 out of Cidra, listed at 5’8” with a 70-inch reach. I’m certain we’ll see him again.Far less certain about Munoz, who is 29 so just kinda giving it a whirl here, and got whirled.