Photos by Eric Brady The Roanoke Times

David Hopkins (top) of Roanoke knocked out David Derby of Outer Banks, N.C., in the third round of a light welterweight match. However, Hopkins suffered a significant cut over his right eye, jeopardizing his next scheduled bout on May 9 in Danville.

Roanoke's Dwayne Davis lost his middleweight bout to Richard Grant of Palm Bay, Fla. Davis and Grant had a rare double knockdown in the second round.

Scott "Cujo" Sigmon (right) in a light heavyweight match against Toris Brewer at the Lynchburg City Armory. Sigmon won the eight-round match.

LYNCHBURG -- The crowd belonged to "Cujo." And as he predicted, so did the fight.

Scott Sigmon showed Toris Brewer on Saturday night at the Lynchburg City Armory that his punch was as strong as his bark with an eight-round unanimous decision.

And his bark is pretty strong.

Sigmon, a light heavyweight from Bedford, called Brewer a bum in pre-fight press releases. He said Brewer's 14-2 record was the product of weak opponents. When it was over, Sigmon (6-1) admitted Brewer was tougher than he expected.

"He frustrated me a little bit," Sigmon said. "He's probably a little bit tougher challenge than had I expected."

But Sigmon also said, "I'm carved out of rock. I was born to fight."

Sigmon's strategy was to throw a lot of punches and finish the fight early with an overhand right. But he said Brewer knew how to stay away from that punch after being hit with one early in the fight. Sigmon sensed Brewer was waiting to really come after him and go for a knockout in the late rounds. That's exactly what Brewer did, but the judges obviously felt Sigmon had done enough damage in the first six rounds.

Brewer, fighting outside the Carolinas for the first time, said he was robbed in Sigmon's backyard and that he wants a rematch anywhere. Sigmon said he will give Brewer a rematch in time.

"He ain't gonna rematch me," Brewer said. "That was a gift. He will never rematch me."

Saturday night's event was the first pro boxing card in Lynchburg in 27 years. Close to 1,000 fans were there, and most of them were Cujo fans. Sigmon hopes that promoter Joe Hensley can put boxing on in Lynchburg three times a year.

"I love the fact that we brought this back to Lynchburg," Sigmon said. "The only way boxing is going to get better is that we're going to have to start from the ground up. The good guys, we're going to have to start fighting each other and that's what Toris did."

Brewer is a survivor of testicular cancer, 39 radiation treatments and a surgery in which his heart stopped.

"I just thank God that I'm able to fight, even though I think I got robbed," Brewer said.

David Hopkins, a light welterweight from Roanoke, followed his strategy all the way to a knockout of David Derby of North Carolina.

Derby, who has a professional mixed martial arts background, came at Hopkins often. Hopkins was looking for the right moment to land a big right hand, and he found it at 2:15 of the third round. Hopkins tapped Derby with a left, Derby turned and Hopkins came with the right. Derby went down on his face and the fight was over.

"He cooperated and I stepped around and caught him with the right hand, and I knew it was over," Hopkins said.

Hopkins (2-0) did receive a significant cut above his right eye that will likely keep him out of action for 30 days and jeopardizes his next scheduled bout on May 9 in Danville. Despite the cut, Hopkins dominated the fight.

"I like the way he worked," trainer and manager Maynard Quesenberry said. "I thought he fought a smart fight."

Roanoke middleweight Dwayne Davis and Richard Grant of Palm Bay, Fla., showed the crowd a rare double knockdown in the second round. But only Grant was credited with a knockdown and held on to win a unanimous decision.

"We got ripped off on that," said Rick Hawkins, Davis' manager and trainer.

Davis (0-2) also absorbed a hard punch in the third round that looked harder than the knockdown. He made it to the fourth and final round just fine, but his domination of the fourth was too late to catch Grant (2-2).

"He started punching, then I started punching and I was trying to knock him out," Davis said. "I should've been more calm and set my punches up more. I'm a little mad at myself because I should've done more."

Davis recently moved from Pleasantville, N.J., to Roanoke and Hawkins has high hopes for Davis and is not discouraged by the loss.

"If he had fought the whole four rounds like he fought the last one it would've been an easy win," Hawkins said. "There's nothing wrong with Dwayne. He's fine."

In other fights, William Bailey (10-16-2) of Portsmouth won a unanimous decision in a cruiserweight rematch with Juan Carlos Robles (12-3) of Waynesboro. Heavyweight Donnell Holmes (30-0-2) of Ivanhoe, N.C., scored a second-round TKO against Curtis Taylor of Danville (13-21-1).

Cameroon native Francois Ambang (2-2) of Richmond was rewarded for his aggressiveness in the opening bout at cruiserweight with a unanimous decision over Darryl Johnson of Columbia, S.C., who made his pro debut.