This was a close, hotly contested fight where Darius Fulghum and Bektemir Melikuziev seemed to take turns having big moments. They were separated by two or less landed punches in five of the 12 rounds.

In the first six rounds, Fulgham threw 200 punches to Melikuziev’s 184. Melikuziev narrowed the activity gap in the last six, throwing 223 punches to Fulghum’s 224. Fulghum landed 24 more jabs, while Melkuziev landed 23 more power punches. Melikuziev held a 44-33 edge in body punches landed, and delivered a body-head combo early in the 12th round that sent Fulghum to the canvas for the first time in his career.

That knockdown negated a point deduction against Melikuziev for excessive holding in the seventh round to swing judges' cards in his favor. All three judges scored the fight 114-112 for Melikuziev.