Montreal Belongs to the Home Fighters: Bazinyan Stops Butler Late, Orobio Stays Perfect

Montreal Casino was always going to be loud for its own on Thursday night, and its own gave it plenty to be loud about. Erik Bazinyan, fighting for the first time in two years, stopped Steven Butler 22 seconds into the tenth and final round of their super middleweight bout, and Jhon Orobio, the headliner at the top of the Eye of the Tiger card, took Hendri Cedeno's unbeaten record apart in three rounds. Seven fights, five stoppages, and every winner on the night fights out of Canada.

Start with the comeback, because comebacks this clean are rare. Bazinyan, 166.2 pounds and fighting out of Laval, had been away from the ring for two years. Butler, 167.7 pounds and from Montreal itself, was the man across from him in a bout between two fighters from the same Eye of the Tiger stable \u2014 the kind of matchup a promotion makes when both men need an answer. Bazinyan's answer took nine rounds and 22 seconds to arrive, and when it arrived, it was not close.

Two Years Away, Settled in 22 Seconds

The finish came right at the start of the tenth. Bazinyan opened the final round with seven unanswered punches to the head that put Butler down, and the fight was stopped at 0:22 of the round \u2014 one short flurry between a two-year comeback and the scorecards, and Bazinyan made sure the judges were never needed.

Bazinyan moves to 33-1-1 with 24 knockouts. Butler falls to 38-7-1, beaten in the last round of a fight his own city came to see him win. There is a particular cruelty in losing at 0:22 of the tenth \u2014 close enough to the finish line to touch it \u2014 but there is no argument with how it ended: a man who had not fought in two years was the fresher fighter in the final round, and that says everything about the night.

Orobio Took Cedeno's Zero in Three Rounds

The co-feature was scheduled for ten and never threatened to see a fourth. Orobio, 139.8 pounds and fighting out of Montreal, dropped Cedeno, 139.7 pounds and from Reading, Pennsylvania, in the first round with a 1-2. Both men came in unbeaten, which usually buys a feeling-out round; Orobio spent it putting his man on the floor instead.

In the third, a big right hand put Cedeno down for a second time, and Orobio finished the job on the ropes, the fight stopped at 1:54 of the round. Orobio is now 20-0 with 18 knockouts. Cedeno leaves Montreal 16-1, carrying his first defeat. A junior welterweight who stops unbeaten men inside three rounds does not stay a local secret for long \u2014 nights like this are how the rest of the division finds out.

The Rest of the Card

Avery Martin Duval kept his own unbeaten run intact in the eight-round junior welterweight bout, stopping Damian Wrzesinski at 1:40 of the fourth round. Duval, of Montreal, is 17-0-1 with nine knockouts; Wrzesinski, 139 pounds and from Poznan, Poland, falls to 29-8.

Wyatt Sanford took the eight-round unanimous decision over Gabriel Jimenez at lightweight. Sanford, 136.7 pounds and from Nova Scotia, moves to 8-0; Jimenez, from Mexico City, is 14-2-1.

Kevin Beausejour won his four-round light heavyweight bout with Charles Cox by unanimous decision, 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37. Beausejour, 174.4 pounds and from Montreal, is 5-0; Cox, 174.2 pounds and from Bridgetown, Barbados, is 2-1.

The two quickest finishes closed the undercard's early running. Nickinson Denis stopped Phillip Quartey at 0:42 of the first round at super middleweight \u2014 Denis, 167.4 pounds and from Montreal, is 3-0 with all three wins by knockout; Quartey, 169.3 pounds and from Accra, Ghana, is 4-3. Diizon Belfon stopped Eduardo Mancea at 2:47 of the first round at middleweight \u2014 Belfon, 162.2 pounds and from Quebec, is 5-0 with all five wins by knockout; Mancea, 160.5 pounds and from Santiago, Chile, is 0-3.

Friday's Scales, Saturday's Collision

Montreal was Thursday's fighting. The rest of fight week belongs to New York and Saturday: Friday brings the UFC 334 ceremonial weigh-ins, and Saturday stacks Pacheco against Fulghum in Carson, Zuffa Boxing 13 in Riyadh and UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden on top of each other. The whole weekend, in the order it actually happens, is laid out in the desk's Saturday guide, and everything else from the fight world lives on the Fight front. Thursday night, though, was Montreal's \u2014 and Montreal's fighters won every bit of it.