Unbeaten light-heavyweight prospect Ali Izmailov didn’t have things all his own way against Connecticut’s Charles Foster, winning a narrow decision over 10 rounds.

The cards read 96-93 (twice) and 95-94. A fifth-round knockdown proved crucial.

It was a tentative opening round, with both fencing and probing with their lead hands from opposing stances, and the second was similar, with the fight – main event on ShoBox at the Turning Stone Casino in Upstate New York – not yet threatening to catch fire.

Foster’s quicker hands allowed him to land the odd single shot but Izmailov looked stronger on the inside. Foster was boxing with great poise and balance and there were signs that Izmailov was becoming impatient. He was struggling to hit Foster cleanly until he finally broke through with a hard right hand as the clackers sounded to end the fifth. Foster fell onto all fours, having tried to stay standing by desperately reaching out for the top rope, but it could not stop his descent.

Izmailov, from Detroit, was emboldened and started the next round with a fresh intensity, including one moment when he tried to march Foster down with his hands behind his back. There was an air of inevitability about where the fight was going. Ismailov was both timing his shots and closing the distance.

Foster picked up a verbal warning from referee Charlie Fitch for hitting behind the head in round seven, but Foster was again making the rounds competitive.

There was a messy moment in the ninth when both fell to the floor on top of one another. Ismailov was frustrated that he hadn’t been able to get Foster out of there and Foster was probably satisfied to have fought through a crisis.

Fitch warned both for petty infractions to start the 10th and final round. Ismailov landed a right, but took a sharp left back in reply. Both tried to do more, but neither could do what they really wanted to do and Ismailov landed some good shots at the bell only for Foster to smile and ride out the storm.

In a battle of unbeaten southpaws, both Richard Vansiclen and Juan Carlos Carrillo scored a knockdown each and there was very little to separate them after 10 decent rounds.

Carrillo won a majority decision by two cards of 95-93 with one level at 94-94. The Ring also had it 94-94.

Carrillo, from Barranquilla, scored a third-round knockdown with a double right hook and Vansiclen became reticent to exchange and was backing up. The Seattle man tried to work downstairs in the next session but Colombia’s Carrillo had him rocking with a couple of uppercuts and under real pressure until Vansiclen remarkably turned things around with a knockdown of his own, landing a big overhand left.

Carrillo had more success in the fifth and both landed heavy left hands in the sixth and it was hotly-contested, with Carrillo throwing himself to the floor after missing with a big hook near the end of the round. The bout was untidy but interesting and Vansiclen was well in it and even pushing the pace, arguably finishing the stronger of the two. Good fight. They could do that again. Carrillo is now 11-0 (8KOs) while Vansiclen is 13-1-1 (6KOs).

Australian light-heavyweight Clay Waterman remained undefeated with a unanimous decision over long-limbed Floridian Kenmon Evans.

Waterman won an enjoyable clash by scores of 77-75 and 78-74 (twice).

By the second round, the sting seemed to have left Evans’s gloves and Waterman, compact and determined, started to apply pressure.

However, Evans was better in the fourth. He was jabbing more, looping in a right hand behind it and Waterman’s face started to mark up.

Sitting ringside with several Hall of Famers in attendance, because it’s the International Boxing Hall of Fame weekend, Timothy Bradley urged Waterman to cut the ring off and work “body-head” against the taller man and the Australian was having increasing success with his left hook.

Evans was guilty of backing up to the ropes in straight lines, allowing Waterman to let his hands go, but Evans’s long right hand still occasionally found its mark.

Some implored Evans to use his uppercut more, and he tried it in the seventh, but he might have been wary about Waterman’s left hook, which he throws with power and ease, causing Evans a degree of reluctance.

Waterman started rattling off more left hooks early in the eighth. Evans was on the deck but from a slip or push and it was not called a knockdown and Waterman was in charge until the end. Evans is now 10-1-1 with three stoppages. Waterman is 11-0 (8KOs).

In a bloody welterweight affair, Hartford’s Mykquan Williams and Brazil’s Paulo Cesar Galdino battled to a majority draw courtesy of cards that read 77-75 (it wasn’t announced who that margin was for) that was overruled by two cards of 76 apiece. The Brazilian had won the crowd, though, and they clearly felt he deserved the win and booed the decision but that turned to cheers when Galdino jumped on the ropes and threw his handwraps into the crowd. The wraps didn’t go far. One was caught by former Ring contributor Brian Doogan, sitting ringside! Williams is now 19-0-2 with 8KOs. Galdino is 12-7-2 with eight stoppages.

Well-supported super-lightweight Bryce Mills, now 12-1, and from nearby Liverpool, New York, won each round of six over Boston’s Jonathan De Pina, who falls to 12-2. Both had their moments and while Bryce was in the ascendency, De Pina seemed hard done by to lose every round 60-54.

At super-middleweight, Maciej Sulecki improved to 31-3 (12 KOs) scoring a stunning second round right hand knockout, the first punch of the round, over Indiana’s Gary Hernandez. The shot had a devastating affect and Hernandez went down and was counted out by Benji Esteves. Hernandez dropped to 19-22-1 (14).

Hall of Fame guests attending included Carl Froch, Robert McCracken, Riddick Bowe, Micky Ward, Dicky Eklund, Michael Spinks, Joe Goossen, Roberto Duran, Robert Garcia, Marlon Starling, Vinny Paz and Michael Nunn.