The main event of Saturday's Premier Boxing Champions card at the Minneapolis Armory was televised on FS1 and pushed deep into the night by several circumstances.
First, there was a baseball game on the network between the New York Mets and Atlanta (11-7, Braves) that lasted 3 hours, 37 minutes, thus pushing the televised boxing back an hour.
Then, two of the television fights went the distance – 12 rounds for Sergiy Derevyanchenko over Jack Curcay in a grueling brawl of middleweight contenders, and then 19-year-old Joey Spencer's six-round defeat of Osias Vasquez.
Osseo's Caleb Truax and Brooklyn's Peter Quillin didn't get in the ring until just before midnight and it was 12:07 a.m. Sunday before the elimination bout started. It was a 12-rounder for two 35-year-old IBF Super Middleweight contenders, with the winner in line for a mandatory title fight against Caleb Plant, the IBF champion.
The crowd of 4,117 was the largest in four PBC cards since boxing returned to the remodeled Armory in April 2018. Most of the fans were there to cheer for Truax, and they stayed until the early morning to see their man.
And then a disappointing result was reached for all.
Truax and Quillin smacked heads in the middle of the second round. Truax stepped back, made a slight wave at the referee, and then turned away – not wanting it to be true, but knowing that he was badly cut and that the fight could come to a premature end.
The head butt caused a wide gash across Truax's right eyebrow. The blood was flowing by the time he turned to face Quillin again. Referee Celestino Ruiz ruled it as an accidental head butt, and Truax and Quillin returned to fighting.