21-year-old Xander Zayas was victorious in his first ESPN main event, outclassing former champion Patrick Teixeira in 10 rounds.

Zayas (18-0, 12 KO) looked ready to end the fight quickly, knocking Teixeira’s (34-5, 25 KO) head back with most of his shots and complementing them with mighty punches to the body. Teixeira, who had not weighed below the middleweight limit for over three years, simply seemed awkward and powerless. He hit less than 10% of his power shots early on, eating most of what Zayas sent him.

Yet somehow Teixeira just stuck around. Zayas was correct, continued to target the body and landed an impressive number of power shots round after round. He just couldn’t get rid of Teixeira; he was pretty close in the last few rounds, but each time Teixeira landed enough shots and moved well enough to survive.

Zayas walked away with two stoppages and a score of 99-91 on the cards. On paper it was a very mighty performance. He just seemed to lack that extra gear, that ferocity and true power he needed to stand out in an increasingly heated division.

He then drafted Erickson Lubin, Josh Kelly and recently signed Vito Mielnicki Jr. I’m not sure he’ll be getting any of them anytime soon; Promoter conflicts will keep the first two and I don’t think Top Rank will refund Mielnicki so quickly.

Carrington spoils De Gracia’s play

Top-flight darling Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington once again proved he is one of the top featherweight contenders in the fight, stopping the very gutsy Brayan De Gracia.

De Gracia (29-4-1, 25 KO) officially took up this fight a few days in advance after Jose Enrique Vivas had visa problems, but commentators claim that he had been preparing for it for several weeks. He certainly looked ready in the first few rounds to, if not win them, then at least get Carrington’s (12-0, 8 KO) attention with his constant pressure and solid shots in the pocket.

But it didn’t take Carrington long to solve the mystery. Fighting from a tight arm throw, Carrington punished De Gracia’s attacks with piercing left hands and consistently avoided De Gracia’s shots in the pocket while also landing ponderous punches of his own. While De Gracia continued to attack, Carrington had more and more success until he finally knocked him down in the fifth with a shot just behind the ear.

De Gracia got back on his feet and, to Carrington’s credit, didn’t keep the lead. As De Gracia’s performance declined, Carrington became more comfortable sitting on ponderous punches, and solid body work in the seventh set lowered De Gracia’s guard enough for Carrington to hit him with a pair of vicious rights that forced De Gracia to hang on from the ropes.

De Gracia again broke the counter and continued his good form in the eighth period, but Carrington was in full gear, marching behind him with his hands down, dodging everything that got in his way, and tattooing De Gracia with powerful shots until a long burst in the final seconds forced the referee to act.

Overall a very good performance from Carrington. Granted, it was a match against someone he was supposed to beat, but he showed impressive timing, accuracy and killer instinct en route to the brutal finish. That said, his subsequent calls to nearby Naoya Inoue were more than a little premature.

Results

• Blair Cobbs UD-10 Adrien Broner (96-93, 96-93, 97-91)
• Michael Hunter UD-10 Cassius Chaney (100-90, 100-90, 100-90)
• Ian Green UD-10 Roy Barringer (96-94, 96-94, 97-93)
• Antonio Perez UD-10 Antonio Williams (99-90, 99-90, 99-90)
• De Von Williams TKO-4 Travis Floyd (2:33)

Adrien Broner and Blair Cobbs meet tonight in the main event of the Don King and Heavyweight Factory pay-per-view in Florida for a 10-round welterweight fight for the WBC’s invention of a fraudulent title called the “People’s Championship.”

The show will start on Thriller PPV at 6:00 PM EST, so yes, there will be a lot of fights, and the main event will likely take place around the same time as the main events that always take place on Saturday nights.

John Hansen will be covering all the updates in the stream below.

Main Tab (PPV6:00 p.m. ET)

• Adrian Broner (35-4-1, 24 KOs) vs. Blair Cobbs (16-1-1, 10 KOs)welterweight, 10 rounds
• Ian Green (18-2, 12 KO) vs. Roy Barringer (10-4, 6 KO), middleweight, 10 rounds
• Michael Hunter (22-1-2, 16 KOs) vs. Cassius Chaney (23-1, 16 KOs)heavyweight, 10 rounds
• Antonio Perez (9-0, 5 KOs) against Antonio Williams (16-0-1, 7 KOs)lightweight, 10 rounds
• De Von Williams (4-0, 4 KOs) vs. Travis Floyd (1-8-2, 0 KO)super lightweight, 4 rounds
• Yoenlis Hernandez (3-0, 3 KOs) vs. Alejandro Barrera (28-7, 17 KOs)middleweight, 10 rounds
• Yuniel Dorticos (26-2, 24 KOs) v. Alan Camp (19-9, 13 KOs)cruiserweight, 10 rounds
• Christian Thun (9-1, 7 KOs) vs. Onoriode Ehwarieme (20-4, 19 KOs)heavyweight, 8 rounds
• Alexander Hernandez (5-0, 3 KOs) vs. Ariel Vasquez (15-40-3, 9 KOs)middleweight, 4 rounds
• Yosdiel Napoles (4-0, 4 KOs) v. Wister Garcia (20-3-1, 13 KOs)lightweight, 10 rounds
• Kalliopi Kourouni (17-3-1, 7 KOs) vs. Edith Soledad Matthysse (18-16-1, 1 KO)super featherweight, 10 rounds
• Montazer Aboughaly (1-0, 0 KO) v. Dakota Highpine (debut)welterweight, 4 rounds

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum spent a few minutes talking to Fight Hype about his reaction to Oscar De La Hoya’s interest in the Top Rank vs. Golden Boy fight and his predictions for the Adrien Broner vs. Blair Cobbs fight tonight on Triller. Check out some of what he had to say below.

Arum on his thoughts on the Golden Boy vs Top Rank card following the recent Matchroom vs Queensbury match

“If it was Oscar and me in the ring, there would be no competition,” Arum joked. “Again, it depends on who the fighters are and who is doing the fighting. This might be a good idea if the couples are really engaging. But it’s the fighters who create the show and the fights that interest people, not the fact that Oscar fighters are fighting our fighters. I think it helps, but it’s kind of irrelevant.

“With all due respect (Matchroom vs Queensbury) it had nothing to do with Warren v Hearn, but there were five good fights and that made the show. I mean, I found every fight engaging and a good fit. The fact that five Queensbury fighters beat five Matchroom marked fighters was, in my opinion, irrelevant. But we had five good fights and that was significant.”

His thoughts on tonight’s fight between Adrien Broner and Blair Cobbs

“I don’t know. I mean, Adrien Broner was a really solid fighter at one point, a great prospect. I thought he was going to be one of the biggest stars in boxing. And then he let his career fall into ruin. So I don’t know what’s left for Adrien Broner.

“And Cobbs, I don’t know what he ever had. So it’s demanding to predict who will win this fight.”