Lucas Bahdi knocks out Ashton Sylve with KO of the year candidate

After losing every second of the fight and seemingly being outclassed, Lucas Bahdi uncorked a combination that sent touted prospect Ashton “H2O” Sylve facedown to the canvas and out cold in a knockout of the year contender on Saturday night.

The lightweight contest was on the undercard of Jake Paul’s clash with Mike Perry and Amanda Serrano’s meeting with Stevie Morgan at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

At the age of just 20, Sylve (11-1, 9 KOs) has already been boxing for 13 years, and in the early going showed veteran poise as he picked Bahdi apart.

Bahdi (17-0, 15 KOs) seemed tight and hesitant in the early going as he struggled to get to grips with Sylve’s fast hands and footwork. Over the first few rounds, Sylve peppered him with sharp counters every time his opponent even looked like winding up for a shot, and in the third round, he stood in the pocket, almost daring Bahdi to hit him, slipping anything Bahdi threw and coming back with fast shots that bloodied the Canadian’s nose. At one point in the third, he waited for Bahdi to wind up with a right hand then landed a faster overhand right that knocked Bahdi sideways. 

In the fourth, Sylve stepped forward into his punches more, taking the initiative and cracking Bahdi with a short left hook on the chin and an uppercut that split his opponent’s guard.

After a quieter fifth that saw Sylve focus on countering, he returned to stepping forward in the sixth, standing in the pocket, landing a punch and pivoting to another angle before throwing and landing again.

It felt as if it was almost becoming too comfortable for Sylve, and perhaps it was, because suddenly the fight was over. Sylve dropped his left hand slightly, Bahdi landed a right hand that stiffened him, another right hand that instantly relieved him of consciousness and a left hand that provided the exclamation point as Sylve crashed face first to the canvas.

Bahdi landed just 39 punches all night to Sylve’s 101, but the final three were all that mattered as Bahdi finds himself with opportunities opening up and Sylve must go back to the drawing board.

In lightweight action, Corey Marksman (10-0-1, 7 KOs) eked out a majority decision win in a rematch with Tony Aguilar. Scores were 76-76, 77-75 and 79-74. 

The two men fought to a split draw in their previous professional meeting and they also fought twice as amateurs, and at times their familiarity with each other was clear as they anticipated each other’s feints and movements. Both men, however, clearly wanted the win and while neither fighter’s accuracy matched his endeavor – Aguilar landed 83 of 348 punches for a 24 percent connect rate, and Marksman 115 of 419, a connect rate of 27 percent – the eight rounds saw both men throwing plenty of leather even as they had  to adjust and readjust their strategies in an effort to wrestle control.

Marksman arguably shaded the early rounds as Aguilar stood too far off while jabbing and after leaned forward and into Marksman’s counters. But he began to find his range in the third round and by the fifth appeared to be in a groove, popping Marksman with sharp jabs and straight rights, smiling as he moved from side to side.

Perhaps sensing he needed to make an adjustment of his own, Marksman stepped forward into his punches more and dug fierce combinations that appeared to rattle Aguilar (12-1-1, 4 KOs). The eighth round saw the two men going forehead to forehead, but Marksman shaded the exchanges and scorecards. 

In the opening bout on the pay per view broadcast, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. continued his lengthy stretch of deeply unimpressive outings, as the former middleweight titlist labored to a six-round unanimous decision win over former UFC fighter Uriah Hall by scores of 59-55 twice and 58-56. 

Although the wide scores met with disapproval from the Amalie Arena crowd, Chavez probably did enough to deserve victory in the six-round cruiserweight bout, but his win owed as much to Hall’s limitations and inexperience as a boxer as to anything the Mexican did himself – a disappointing verdict  for a 61-fight professional boxer against an MMA fighter making just his second appearance in a pro boxing ring.

Chavez (54-6-1, 34 KOs) started brightly enough, showing superior handspeed and landing several clean left hooks. But he slowly settled into the familiar Chavez Jr rhythm of doing as little as needed to scrape by. To be fair, the 38-year-old Mexican had been out of the ring for two and a half years; against that, Hall (1-1) was drafted in with just a few weeks’ notice and even showed up without any apparent groin protection. 

Hall had his moments once he realized that Chavez did not have much left in his arsenal, but although he at times was able to back his opponent to the ropes and even landed a couple of sneaky left hooks of his own, he simply didn’t throw enough, or have the necessary nous, to spring the upset.

Afterward, Chavez said he wanted to fight Jake Paul. The underwhelming response from the crowd.

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.