Elvin Ayala (born January 15, 1981) is an American
professional boxer
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
, Ayala took up boxing as a way to stay off the streets and out of trouble. He credits former light heavyweight world champion
Chad Dawson
Chad Dawson (born July 13, 1982) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2019. He has held multiple light heavyweight world championships, and was one of the most highly regarded boxers in that division between 2006 and ...
as one of his early influences.
"I really didn’t have any schooling," Ayala said, "and there were drugs everywhere I grew up. When I came to Connecticut, Chad was coming up at the time and becoming a star and making money, and I’m like, 'Wait, you can make money off this?'
"I didn’t want to live a life where I had to look over my shoulder all the time, but I still needed to make money. I didn’t want to live in poverty anymore."
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
Toms River is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. Its mainland portion is also a census-designated place of the same name, which serves as the county seat of Ocean County.Boston, Massachusetts. The victory over Leggett began a stretch of three consecutive knockout wins for Ayala.
Ayala eventually won his first 16 fights before facing his toughest test to date against future The Contender
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...
participant 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. Three months later, Ayala faced Banks again, this time losing by unanimous decision, 91–99, 93–97, 94–96, at Mohegan Sun in February 2007.
Ayala bounced back with back-to-back wins against Dillon Carew and Jose Angel Roman in
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
and closed the year with arguably his most impressive performance in a controversial draw against then-unbeaten The Contender Season 1 champion
Sergio Mora
Sergio Mora (born December 4, 1980) is an American former professional boxer. He is a former WBC light middleweight champion, and twice challenged for the WBA (Regular) middleweight title. He was the first winner of NBC's '' The Contender'' s ...
at the
Home Depot Center
Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignit ...
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 even at 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
Avetik Abrahamyan ( hy, Ավետիք Աբրահամյան; born 20 February 1980), best known as Arthur Abraham, is an Armenian-German former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight ...
. The bout took place on 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
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
(USBA) middleweight title bout against former world-title challenger Lajuan Simon by unanimous decision at the
Palms Casino Resort
Palms Casino Resort is a hotel and casino located near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. It includes 703 rooms and a casino. It was originally owned by th ...
.
Ayala then traveled to
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
in June 2010 to face hometown favorite David Lemieux, who entered the bout at 22–0 with 21 knockouts, on ESPN's
Friday Night Fights
The cable television network ESPN has occasionally broadcast boxing events over the majority of its history, as part of several arrangements, including contracts with specific promotions and consortiums such as Golden Boy Promotions, Premier Box ...
for the WBC International middleweight title. Ayala hit the canvas three times in the opening round and lost by technical knockout at the 2:44 mark. "There were so many excuses after the loss o Lemieux Everyone had all these reasons," Ayala said. “I felt the only reason was because I was too heavy and had to lose the weight rapidly. I was drained. Who can fight like that? My four-year-old daughter could’ve hit me that day and knocked me out."
After his loss to Lemieux, Ayala stringed together six wins against lesser opposition and won the USNBC title along the way. Ayala would then lose a fight to Curtis Stevens for the NABF title via round 1 stoppage. Stevens overpowered Ayala, knocking him down twice in the first round.
Ayala won an upset unanimous decision (78-74, 78–74, 77–75) over
Mayweather Promotions
Mayweather Promotions, LLC is a boxing promotional firm founded in 2007 by Floyd Mayweather Jr., after exercising a provision in his contract with Bob Arum and Top Rank that allowed him to become a free agent for the price of $750,000. Al Haymon h ...
prospect
Ronald Gavril
Ronald Gavril (born July 10, 1986) is a Romanian professional boxer. He is signed to Mayweather Promotions and is currently trained by Eddie Mustafa Muhammad.
Early life and education
Ronald Gavril was born on 10 July 1986 in Bacău, Romania. ...
. However, Ayala would lose his next fight to
Sergiy Derevyanchenko
Sergiy Vyacheslavovich Derevyanchenko ( uk, Сергій В'ячеславович Дерев'янченко, Serhiy V'yacheslavovych Derev'yanchenko, born 31 October 1985), is a Ukrainian professional boxer who has challenged three times for w ...
by unanimous decision. In November 2016, Ayala defeated Marcos Reyes by round 7 TKO. This was Ayala's first stoppage win in over 4 years.