Lyell bests McCants on local card

Austintown's Chris Koval threw the best punch of his career in a knockout win.
By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Niles junior middleweight boxer Billy Lyell showed more energy and landed more punches in winning a unanimous decision over Cincinnati's Corey McCants on Friday at the St. Nicholas Byzantine Center.
The six-round Lyell-McCants bout was the best of the eight contested before 700 fans.
Lyell (5-1) was the aggressor. On three occasions he missed connecting with a solid shot against the quick-moving McCants (2-9).
This bout was the classical variation in styles, with Lyell constantly moving forward with a good left jab and a whistling left hook against the slick-boxing, constantly on-the-move McCants.
Three judges voted unanimously 59-55 for Lyell.
"My conditioning was a factor in winning, but I didn't do as good a job as I should have in putting punches together," Lyell said. "I am happy with the win, but with Ray Mancini here, I should have done more to get the win."
Koval featured
The co-feature was a six-round bout between big men Chris Koval from Austintown (2381/2 pounds) and Greg McWhirter (271) from Crossville, Tenn.
Koval (17-1) showed great punching power as he scored his 14th knockout with a vicious right to the jaw at 1:37 of the first round.
McWhirter (4-2) threw several good shots, but a volley of solid body shots by Koval brought his guard down, and a straight right caught McWhirter flush on the jaw, sending him down in his own corner.
The count could have been to 100 as McWhirter sat in his corner on the canvas for at least three minutes.
"The knockout shot was without a doubt the best punch of my career," Koval said. "I would have liked more work, but I didn't want to give him the opportunity to get into the fight."
Jim "Tank" DiCioccio and the Southside Boxing Club were the night's promoters.
The other fight to go the distance featured Darnell Boone from the Southside Club in his pro debut winning a unanimous decision in a non-stop punching effort over Jay Holland of Columbus in a super middleweight contest.
Holland (0-3) originally hailed from New Castle and was a running back for the Ursuline Irish.
The only local fighter to lose on the evening was Warren's Zach Page making his pro debut, as was Roosevelt Johnson from Cleveland.
Into the third round, this was a pier six slugfest as the cruiserweights had several good exchanges, but three solid rights sent Page down three different times. Referee Bernie Profato stopped the fight at 2:04 of the third round of the scheduled four-rounder.
Youngstown's Durrell Richardson made short work in his middleweight four-rounder with Cleveland's Melvin Landers (0-3) as a stern right jab off the southpaw slants of Richardson (2-0) set up a three-punch combination that finished Landers at 1:33 of round one.
Irish Davey McBride, the aggressive lightweight out of Salem, went to 3-1 with his second knockout when he put away Rasheen Daniels from Warren, who was making his pro debut, with a vicious left at 1:09 of round two.