Jack vs DeGale results: Immanuwel Aleem upsets Ievgen Khytrov in wild fight

Ievgen Khytrov and Immanuwel Aleem both entered tonight’s middleweight fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn as undefeated prospects, but there was no doubt that Khytrov was the bigger hyped, more celebrated prospect. He was the favorite.

And then Aleem proved pretty much everyone wrong.

Aleem (17-0-1, 10 KO) hurt Khytrov in the first round, dropped him in the third, and put him down again and finished the Ukrainian in the sixth, winning a wild, back-and-forth slugfest which is an early Fight of the Year contender, and a pretty big upset, to boot.

Khytrov (14-1, 12 KO) never quite had his bearings here, as Aleem jumped on him and upset his equilibrium early in the fight, but it has to be said that he made a hell of a go of it, too, throwing a ton of punches and probably winning the second, fourth, and fifth rounds.

But Aleem just had his number, clubbing him with repeated overhand rights that eventually put the favored prospect away. It’s a huge win for Aleem, who landed 129 of 363 (36%) of his punches, compared to 201 of 589 (34%) for Khytrov, and throws him into the mix as a middleweight contender, even though in his last outing, he fought to a draw with Demond Nicholson in Quebec City.

It’s obviously a big setback for Khytrov, the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships gold medalist, and a competitor at London 2012, where he was controversially upset by Anthony Ogogo.

If you missed this fight tonight, do catch a replay, because it’s well worth it.

Also on the card, Puerto Rico’s Thomas Dulorme moved up to the welterweight division, where he plans to stay, scoring a predictable tune-up win over Brian Jones. Dulorme (24-2, 16 KO) scored a sixth round stoppage, with the official time of 1:49. It was a stoppage by the referee, as Jones (13-7, 7 KO) was getting whacked around pretty much from the get-go. We learned nothing new, but he Dulorme got a fight in, and it’s what it is.