By Francisco Salazar

Fringe light heavyweight contender Justin Thomas won by disqualification over veteran Kevin Engel Saturday night at the Belle of Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Engel (20-16, 16 knockouts) was disqualified in round six for repeatedly spitting out his mouthpiece. He has now lost his last 10 bouts.

Thomas (19-3, 7 KOs), who resides in Baton Rouge, snapped a two-bout losing streak. Saturday night marked the 15th time Thomas has fought at the Belle of Baton Rouge, where he has only lost once.

Junior welterweight Bill Hutchinson won a hard-fought eight round majority decision over Chris Singleton, who also resides in Baton Rouge.

One judge scored the bout 76-76, while the other two judges scored the bout 77-75 in favor of Hutchinson, who improves to 15-2-4, 7 KOs.

Hutchinson, who resides in Pittsburgh, has now won his last five bouts.

Singleton (18-5-2, 8 KOs) has lost two of his last three bouts.

Hard-hitting light heavyweight Troy Williams (4-0, 3 KOs) scored a first round knockout victory over David Lujan (4-9, 1 KO).

In lightweight action, Henry Allen (5-0-1, 1 KO) and Devon Jones (2-5-1, 1 KO) fought to a draw over four rounds.

The eight round bout between Ravshan Hudaynazarov (17-0, 11 KOs) and David Thomas was scratched from the card due to promotional issues between World Fighting Championships, which promoted the card, and Hudaynazarov's previous promoter.

IN OTHER NEWS: This past week, the "Pound-4-Pound" gym, Las Vegas' # 1 amateur boxing program, sent eight members to the 2017 USA Boxing Elite Youth National Championships & Junior Open.  The Barrientes twins, Chavez and Angel both qualified to represent Team USA in the Junior Division, by winning belts at the tournament.  Angel Barrientes was voted most outstanding boxer of the tournament.

The five-day tournament, which took place in Salt Lake City, UT, at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, had the best amateur boxers fighting to see who would triumph and represent Team USA.

"I'm very proud of our entire team who all fought hard and had tremendous success in this tournament," said Pound-4-Pound head coach Richard Barrientes. "Although everyone didn't come home with a belt, they all gave it their best, and gained a lot of experience.  Angel and Chavez were outstanding, winning belts in their divisions.  We competed against the best amateur boxers in the USA and held our own.  Words can't describe how happy I am with everyone's performance.  

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing