Niles, Ohio’s Billy Lyell fought with courage but was unable to take the IBF middleweight title from Sebastian Sylvester on Saturday night at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Sylvester (33-3, 16 KOs) started fast and dominated the first two rounds
cutting Lyell (21-8, 4 KOs) on the bridge of the nose. Corner man Jack Loew did a fine job controlling the cut.
Lyell came on in round three and held his own in rounds four and five. Sylvester came back in rounds six and seven with stiff jabs and hard body shots. The action slowed in rounds eight and nine and at times Billy was outworking the champ. The trouble was that Billy was unable to hurt his foe. Sylvester opened the ten round strongly and eventually caught Lyell with a hard right to the head that staggered him. As Lyell stumbled toward the ropes his trainer, Jack Loew waved the towel and the referee stepped in. The time was 0:53.
Although Sylvester fought well I cannot see him beating Kelly Pavlik.
On the under card former WBO heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster was halted in the eighth round by undefeated Robert Helenius. Brewster was down in the second and beaten throughout. The match ended at 2:21 0f the eighth.