DULORME TAKES THE NIGHT

 The NABF Thanks Dan Rafael for this Article:

So if the fight was an audition, Dulorme could get a callback after the 24-year-old Puerto Rican fighter scored a 10-round unanimous decision against Mayfield on Saturday night at the Adrian Phillips Ballroom at Boardwalk Hall in the co-feature of the card headlined by Sergey Kovalev’s light heavyweight title defense against Cedric Agnew.

The judges all had it for Dulorme, 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94. ESPN.com also had it 98-92 for Dulorme, who won his fifth fight in a row since suffering a seventh-round knockout loss to Luis Carlos Abregu in October 2012.

“I’m ready for whatever HBO gives me,” Dulorme said through translator Robert Garcia, the new trainer he was working with for the first time. “I had a great camp with Robert Garcia and I am ready for anything, whoever HBO gives me.”

Promoter Gary Shaw echoed the sentiment, although he does not seem confident Dulorme will get the title fight, which more likely could go to Chris Algieri (19-0, 8 KOs).

“We want the title fight but we will fight anyone HBO wants us to fight,” Shaw said. “I thought he was much improved. He had a good jab and fought smart. I would have liked him to throw a few more body punches but he fought well.”

Dulorme (21-1, 14 KOs) and Mayfield (18-1-1, 11 KOs), 33, of San Francisco, were involved in a scuffle at Friday’s weigh-in after Mayfield, wearing a baseball hat, violated Dulorme’s personal space with the bill of the cap, prompting Dulorme to take it off his head and put it back on turned backward. That led to Mayfield grabbing Dulorme around the neck and they had to be separated. Mayfield also licked — yes, licked — Dulorme’s chest.

Their animosity on Friday did not spill over into the fight, however. Dulorme tried to make the fight but Mayfield, as he often does, did a lot of holding and grabbing.

The taller and longer Dulorme showed off an accurate left hook in the first round, wobbling Mayfield at least twice with it as Mayfield circled into the shots. In the second round, it was Dulorme’s right hand that rocked Mayfield and had him looking to hold on.

Mayfield swung and missed wildly with many shots because he could not get inside Dulorme’s longer arms. At the bell ending the third round, Dulorme rocked Mayfield again.

Mayfield tried to change the flow of the fight in the fourth round, mauling and grabbing Dulorme and trying to rough him up on the inside, but he had little success.

There was good action for a stretch in the sixth round as they exchanged punches, but it was Dulorme, landing hard right hands in close, who got the better of the action.

Dulorme nailed Mayfield with a huge right hand in the seventh round but Mayfield stayed on his feet. Later in the round, Dulorme began to bleed from the top of his head after an accidental head clash.

Dulorme was warned twice for accidental low blows in the eighth round, the first of which seemed much worse than the second and caused referee Steve Smoger to give Mayfield time to recover.

Mayfield came on strong in the final two rounds as Dulorme seemed to be fading, but he was well ahead on the cards.

“I thought I fought a good fight and it could have gone either way,” Mayfield said. “He was the better man and I take my hat off to him. The low blows hurt a little bit but I can’t use that as an excuse.”

Garcia liked what he saw from Dulorme in their first outing together since Dulorme relocated to train in his Oxnard, Calif., gym.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” Garcia said. “There’s a lot to work on. Little by little. We’ve only been together for three months. But if we can get the title shot, why not?”