Elvin Ayala

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Elvin Ayala (born Elvin Ayala, January 15, 1981) is an American professional boxer from New Haven, Connecticut. He is a former world-title challenger and reigning World Boxing Council U.S. National Boxing Council (WBC USNBC) middleweight champion.

Ayala is currently ranked No. 16 in the WBC and No. 4 in the North American Boxing Federation (NABF). He will make his first title defense and fight for the vacant NABF middleweight championship March 30, 2012 at Foxwoods Resort Casino in the co-feature of ESPN's Friday Night Fights telecast.

Professional career

At the age of 22, Ayala made his professional debut on September 19, 2003 with a unanimous decision win over Michael Gutrick in Toms River, New Jersey, a short distance from his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Within a year, Ayala improved his professional record to 7-0 with one knockout. On November 11, 2004, Ayala earned his eighth professional win by knocking out Chance Leggett, then 11-3, in the seventh round of a scheduled eight-round bout at The Roxy in Boston, Massachusetts. The victory over Leggett began a stretch of three consecutive knockout wins for the New Haven middleweight.

Ayala eventually won his first 16 fights before facing his toughest test to date against future The Contender reality television star David Banks, who was 12-1-1 at the time, on November 24, 2006 at The Roxy. Ayala lost a narrow split decision, 94-97, 95-96, 96-94 — the first loss of his professional career. Judge Robert Kaprielian was the only judge to score the bout in Ayala's favor.

Three months later, Ayala faced Banks again, this time losing by unanimous decision, 91-99, 93-97, 94-96, at Mohegan Sun in February of 2007.

Ayala didn't stay down for long; he rebounded with back-to-back wins against Dillon Carew and Jose Angel Roman in Connecticut and closed the year with arguably his most impressive performance in a controversial draw against then-unbeaten The Contender Season 1 champion Sergio Mora at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Ayala lost, 91-99, on judge David Mendoza's scorecard, but won the bout, 96-94, on Raul Caiz Jr.'s scorecard. Max DeLuca judged the bout, 95-95.

The draw dropped Ayala's record to 18-2-1, setting up the biggest fight of Ayala's young career — a showdown against undefeated International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight world champion Arthur Abraham. The bout took place March 29, 2008 in Germany two months after Ayala's 27th birthday. Abraham won the majority of the rounds, sending Ayala to the canvas in the fifth, and finished Ayala for good via 12th-round knockout with just 28 seconds remaining in the fight. Abraham improved to 26-0 with the win, which was also his seventh world-title defense.

Following a 10-month stretch of inactivity, Ayala returned with back-to-back wins against Antony Bartinelli and Eddie Caminero before losing a United States Boxing Association (USBA) middleweight title bout against former world-title challenger Lajuan Simon by unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

Ayala's next bout proved to be the turning point in his career. The then-29-year-old middleweight traveled to Montreal, Quebec in June of 2010 to face hometown favorite David Lemiuex, who entered the bout at 22-0 with 21 knockouts, on ESPN's Friday Night Fights for the WBC International middleweight title. Physically drained due to a last-minute weight-cut in training camp, Ayala hit the canvas three times in the opening round and lost by technical knockout at the 2:44 mark.

The loss to Lemiuex forced Ayala to make several career moves; he switched trainers, found himself a manager and signed with Jimmy Burchfield's Classic Entertainment & Sports, a promotional firm based out of North Providence, Rhode Island.

Ayala began his CES tenure with a unanimous-decision win over Mustafah Johnson at Mohegan Sun on February 4, 2010. Since signing with CES, Ayala is 4-0, including a knockout win over Rhode Island-based Joe Gardner on ESPN in April and a win over former The Contender participant Derrick Findley for the then-vacant WBC USNBC title at Mohegan Sun on July 29; Findley was a late replacement as Ayala was originally scheduled to face Hartford, Connecticut veteran Israel "Pito" Cardona.