Then in the 10th and final round, Lange ended perhaps the most brutal fight of his career, knocking Wyatt down. The Richmond veteran struggled to his feet, but wobbled into the ropes, the referee calling it with just 22 seconds left.

How many more fights of this kind can the 35-year-old Lange (34-4-2), take as his career winds down?

“We’re in a fight,” said Lange. “It’s not a high school prom.”

For 10 rounds, Wyatt (23-2) stood in the middle of the ring and came at Lange. And for 10 rounds, the Great Falls native circled him clockwise in his familiar pose – hands low, his only defense his constant movement and excellent physical condition.

“I thought it was even,” said Lange of the fight heading into the 10th round.

Even as the cut below his left eye grew larger, Lange continued to fight offensively. In the final round, after both fighters had absorbed enormous punishment, Lange’s tactics paid off. With Wyatt covering up and bent at the waist, Lange clocked him with a left hook to the skull. 

“It caught me on top of my head,” said Wyatt, 40.

A latecomer to boxing, Wyatt had his first professional fight at age 30. Wyatt was an immediate success, winning his first 23 bouts. But his ascent was derailed in 2006 as he fought for the WBA Inter-Continental light middleweight title, losing in Denmark via second-round knockout by undefeated Reda Zam Zam. 

Saturday’s fight was Wyatt’s first in more than four years.

“Joe Wyatt is back,” he said. “I will be the world champion before I retire.”

As Wyatt talked championship, Pennsylvania junior middleweight Harry Yorgey, 32, who was in the crowd Saturday night and at the post-fight press conference, talked of a potential title match with Lange.

“Obviously we came down for a reason,” said Yorgey (22-1-1). “I got a ton of fans back home, thousands of fans. You got thousands of fans down here. That’s great for boxing between Jimmy and I.”

Draw for Joppy

On the comeback trail, 40-year-old former middleweight world champion William Joppy of the District stood toe-to-toe with Cory “Black Ice” Cummings of Baltimore for 10 brutal, spectacular rounds, in a fight that was scored a draw.

One judge had the fight 96-94 for Joppy, but the other two had it even. The result did not disappoint the crowd, which entered the fight rooting for local hero Joppy. But as the fight wore on, fans gained admiration for the relentless work of Cummings (17-4-1), who came straight at Joppy throughout, dictating the tempo.

Joppy countered with professionalism, economy of movement, and straight right- and left-hands, that took their toll on Cummings. After slumping in the middle rounds, Joppy rallied late to earn the draw.

Joppy was not happy with the decision, but was encouraged by his performance and sounded anxious to fight again.

“Maybe they want to bring us back and do it again,” said Joppy (39-6-2). “I don’t know what happened. I wanted to get my 40^th win. I’m stuck on 39.”

Joppy had lost his last two fights, in 2008 to Lucian Bute (TKO) and in March of this year to Sebastien Demers (decision). Both lasted 10 rounds.

“I felt good to get back in there,” said Joppy. “It was like I was back in the nineties. I could fight another guy right now.”

One punch is all it takes for Ballard

In the most entertaining match of the night, which lasted just one round, junior middleweight Booker Mullins of Spartanburg, S.C. caught 43-year-old Perry “The Punisher” Ballard of Martinsburg, W.Va. twice in the opening minute. But Ballard mugged, smiled, and mocked Mullins through his assault, and constantly chased the retreating Mullins. Finally backing Mullins into a corner, Ballard landed his first substantial blow of the night, an overhand right that knocked Mullins (3-10) flat on the canvas for a KO at 2:54.

After Ballard improved to 21-2-1, he challenged Lange to a match. One of Ballard’s two losses came to Lange five years ago, a fourth-round TKO.

Wilson remains unbeaten

Undefeated welterweight Todd “White Lightning” Wilson of Falls Church looked unsettled in the opening round of his match with Corey “Bad Boy” Goodwin of Columbia, S.C.

But once Wilson got his bearings, he had no trouble taking control, then scoring a third-round TKO to improve to 9-0. Wilson, a 26-year-old graduate of Virginia Military Institute, thrilled his green-clad fans with the third KO of his career.

“I don’t know if I broke his nose, but his nose got pretty bloody real quick,” said Wilson, a left-hander.

Other Fights

In a battle of veteran middleweights, Mike McFail of Baltimore had an undistinguished record of 12-40-2, but rocked heavily-favored Jonathan Reid of Nashville, knocking him against the ropes for a standing 8 count. But Reid (35-13-7) answered the wake-up call immediately, smacking the tooth guard out of McFail’s mouth and dominating the rest of the six-round fight on his way to a unanimous decision …  Middleweight Zain “Tiger” Shah of Chantilly (4-0) weathered a sixth-round flurry from Omar Sims of Baltimore (5-3) to win a unanimous decision … Junior middleweight Brandon Quarles of Alexandria improved to 3-0 with a first-round knockout of Lawrence Jones of Reston.