Prograis Wins in Louisiana; Easter and Barthelemy Fight to a Draw in Vegas

The city of Lafayette, Louisiana, sits approximately halfway between New Orleans and Houston, the former and current home of Hurricane Katrina survivor Regis Prograis. Tonight Prograis made his third straight start in his native state, appearing at Lafayette’s Cajundome, and emerged with his first world title, taking Kiryl Relikh’s WBA 140-pound strap with a sixth round stoppage.

Prograis, who improved to 24-0 with his 20th knockout, was dominant from the start. He knocked Relikh (23-3) to the canvas with a body punch in the opening frame and systematically broke him down until referee Luis Pabon, with the assent of Relikh’s corner, called a halt at the midway point of round six. Relikh was defending the title he won with a 12-round unanimous decision over Eduard Troyanovsky in Yokohama.

Up next for Prograis is the winner of the May 18 bout in Glasgow, Scotland, between Josh Taylor and Ivan Baranchyk. Both are undefeated. If Taylor beats Baranchyk — and Taylor is the favorite — it is expected that the Taylor-Prograis match will play out on Taylor’s tartan turf in Glasgow.

Nonito Donaire appeared to be at the end of the road when he was widely outpointed by Carl Frampton in April of last year, but there’s plenty of juice left in the Filipino Flash who elevated his record to 40-5 (26 KOs) and reinforced his Hall of Fame credentials with a one-punch knockout of Stephon Young to storm into the finals of the WBSS bantamweight tournament where his likely foe will be Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue.

Donaire took out Young (18-2-3) with a left hook in round six, a punch of such ferocity that the referee didn’t bother to count. Young, who is from St. Louis but trains in Miami in the same gym as heavyweight Luis Ortiz, was a late sub for Zolani Tete who was forced to withdraw with a shoulder injury.

A third TV fight between Toledo’s Sonny Fredrickson (20-1, 13 KOs) and Kazakhstan’s Bakhtiyar Eyubov (14-0-1, 12 KOs) was cancelled when Eyubov was unable to make the contracted weight of 140 pounds. According to Dan Rafael, Eyubov came in two pounds over the limit on his first try and three-and-a-half pounds over the limit on his second try after a two hour recess.

Las Vegas

In the main event of a bland card at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Toledo’s Robert Easter Jr. (21-1-1) and Cuban defector Rances Barthelemy (27-1-1) fought to a 12-round draw. At stake was a vacant WBA 135-pound title which remains vacant. This was a tactical fight, devoid of fireworks. The scores were 115-113, 113-115, and 114-114.

Easter was making his first start since losing his IBF lightweight belt in his fourth defense in a unification fight with Mikey Garcia. Barthelemy, a Las Vegas resident, was a former world title-holder at 130 and 135 pounds. His lone defeat was inflicted by Kiryl Relikh.

In another fight that figured to go the full distance, L.A.-based Ukrainian Viktor Postol  (31-2, 12 KOs) had too much class for feather-fisted Frenchman Mohamed Mimoune (21-3).  The 35-year-old Postol, whose lone defeats were to Terence Crawford and Scotland’s Josh Taylor, won the dull fight by comfortable scores of 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93.

In the first bout of the Showtime tripleheader, Efe Ajagba (10-0, 9 KOs) stopped Germany’s Michael Wallisch (19-2) in the second round. Ajagba knocked Wallisch down with a legitimate punch and then accidentally hit him while he was down. Wallisch was given time to recover, but that merely prolonged the inevitable.

Ajagba, a Nigerian who fights out of Houston, is on the short list of the top young heavyweight prospects, a list that includes Filip Hrgovic and Daniel Dubois. With the win, Ajagba kept pace with Dubois, a Brit who won earlier today in London to improve to 11-0 (10). As a pro, Efe Ajagba has hardly worked up a sweat. He’s answered the bell for only 16 rounds.

Also, in a match slated for 10 rounds, Los Angeles junior middleweight Terrel Williams (18-0) kept his undefeated record intact with a hard-fought split decision over Justin DeLoach (18-4). Two judges favored Williams 96-94 with the dissenter scoring it 96-94 for DeLoach.

Williams, 35, took 25 months off after his tragic bout with Prichard Colon, a match that left Colon with permanent brain damage. This was his third fight back.

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