Liver shot! Keyshawn stops Berinchyk in four to capture WBO lightweight title

Keyshawn Davis put Denys Berinchyk down and out with a nasty liver shot in Round 4.

Keyshawn Davis (13-0, 9 KOs) is now a world champion, taking Denys Berinchyk’s WBO lightweight title in only four rounds. Davis’ skill and athleticism advantage was evident from the opening bell, and despite a relatively slow and sloppy first couple of round Berinchyk (19-1, 9 KOs) couldn’t really manage to land a clean shot against Davis while Davis was quickly getting the rhythm of the awkward Berinchyk.

In the third round Davis would catch Berinchyk coming forward with a left to the body that dropped Berinchyk, although Berinchyk didn’t appear to be extremely hurt at the time. The very next round David would basically catch Berinchyk with the same exact shot to the liver, but this time it put Berinchyk down and out as he was unable to make the 10-count, ending the fight at the 1:45 minute mark of Round 4.

With the win Davis takes a major world title while putting on a performance that should earn him a fight against some of the other elite fighters of the lightweight division going forward. In the post-fight interview in the ring Davis said he’s willing to take on anyone who’s got the guts to face him.

Berinchyk vs Davis highlights

Xander Zayas TKO-9 Slawa Spomer

Xander Zayas (21-0, 13 KOs) dominated his matchup with Slawa Spomer (20-1, 11 KOs), proving from the opening round that he was a class above a very tough and game opponent. Spomer didn’t come into this fight to lay down but was bleeding from the opening round and absorbed a ton of punishment over nine rounds before the referee ultimately stepped in to stop the fight after seeing Spomer take too much damage with a response he deemed worthy of continuing the fight.

Zayas swept all the rounds on my card and then landed a clean liver shot on Spomer in the ninth that nearly had Spomer hit the deck, but the follow up and the lack of fight left in Spomer prompted the referee to call it a night.

Vito Mielnicki Jr D-10 Connor Coyle

Vito Mielnicki (20-1-1) was looking to put on a better performance at middleweight than the last time he was at Madison Square Garden, and although I’d argue he did accomplish that, he didn’t get the result he wanted as he ended up with a majority draw with Conor Coyle (21-0-1).

Mielnicki started the fight quickly and looked like he might be too much for Coyle, but Coyle made the adjustment to press the action and put his punches together which saw him rebound in the fight and win a few rounds. There would be more rounds of back and forth action but I saw Mielnicki close the fight strong, visibly hurting Coyle a number of times. I had the fight a pretty clear win for Mielnicki, 97-93, but the official judges turned in one card in favor of Mielnicki, 96-95, with the other two judges turning in cards of 95-95.