Bruce Carrington overcame the toughest challenge of his young career on Friday, defeating Sulaiman Segawa by majority decision at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

One judge had the fight 95-95, marking the first scorecard the 27-year-old from Brownsville, Brooklyn did not win, while the other two judges awarded Carrington the win by the scores of 97-93.

The tallies told the story of a close, competitive bout where Carrington (13-0, 8 knockouts) wanted the victory more in the final two rounds. Segawa (17-5-1, 6 KOs) of Silver Spring, Md. by way of Kampala, Uganda got off to a strong start in the first two rounds, sneaking his southpaw left hand between the Carrington guard and landing effectively to the body. Carrington took that cue in the third and fourth round, targeting Segawa's body with right hand counters.

Segawa, 33, picked up the pace in the fifth round, mixing in his right hook to keep Carrington turning and staying off the line for Carrington's counterpunches.

The two collided heads in the seventh round, leading to a headbutt that caused a hematoma high on Carrington’s head. The bump, though visible, did not impair Carrington’s vision. With the fight close after eight rounds, Carrington turned up the aggression in the final two rounds, outworking his opponent and securing the victory.

After having his hand raised, Carrington gave his opponent the respect he earned.

“You’re a good fighter bro, definitely the best competitor I’ve had so far,” said Carrington, who entered the fight rated no. 1 by the WBA, no. 2 by the WBC and WBO, and no. 8 by the IBF at 126 pounds.

“This is just gonna get me to the next level. I just learned to deal with the off-tempo. I got a couple of things I gotta work on back in the gym. We gotta get back on our beat and have more dominant performances. But as long as we got the ‘W’ at the end of the day, we’re still good.”

CompuBox stats showed Segawa outlanding and outworking Carrington overall, landing 108 of 416 total punches compared to the 91 landed out of 358 attempts from Segawa.Segawa entered the fight coming off his biggest win to date, having upset WBC no. 1 ranked featherweight Ruben Villa, winning a unanimous decision.

In earlier action, Vito Mielnicki (20-1, 12 KOs) won his second straight fight since signing with Top Rank, defeating Italian Khalil El Harraz (16-6-1, 2 KOs) by majority decision in a ten round junior middleweight fight. One judge had the fight even at 95-95 while the other two had it 100-90 and 98-92 in favor of the New Jersey native Mielnicki.

Elvis Rodriguez (17-1-1, 13 KOs) scored a unanimous decision over Kendo Castaneda (21-7, 9 KOs) by scores of 100-90 on two cards and 99-91 on the third.

Delante “Tiger” Johnson (14-0, 6 KOs) scored an eight round unanimous decision over his most experienced opponent as a pro, defeating Yomar Alamo (22-3-1, 13 KOs) by scores of 78-74 on two cards and 77-75 on the third. Johnson, 26, of Cleveland, Ohio was a 2020 U.S. Olympian.