Charles P. Saus, Mountaineer Race Track via AP Verquan Kimbrough, of Aliquippa lands a solid right hand to the face of Ubaldo Olivencia, of New York, in their battle for the North American Boxing Council American featherweight title at Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort last night. Click photo for larger image.

CHESTER, W.Va. -- On his 369th day as a professional boxer, Verquan Kimbrough held a championship belt around his waist. Except this belt was so large, that it extended from his thighs to his abs. The title he won last night may seem small, for the North American Boxing Council's Americas championship in the featherweight division, but that NABC sure makes a big belt.

"I ain't carrying that thing," Kimbrough joked afterward, "it's too big."

This Aliquippa young man of 21 celebrated his first full year as a pro with a unanimous decision over Ubaldo Olivencia and a champion's bauble won before roughly 1,500 in the Grande Ballroom at Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort. The judges scored it a 80-72 sweep on two cards and 79-73 on another.

Although Kimbrough (8-0) is ranked only No. 3 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission's first-quarter 2004 ring ratings, behind Victor Abadia (22-4-1) of the Poconos and Philadelphia's Rogers Mtagwa (17-9-2), he walked around West Virginia's northern panhandle with a Western Hemisphere title and a relatively important stepping-stone last night. This eight-round sanctioned title fight -- normally, they're 10 or 12 rounds -- was his longest to date: He had waged just one six-round bout previously, in April.

"I'm ready to go 12," he crowed. "I'm ready to go the whole way."

An accidental head but left both fighters bleeding in the first round, with cuts over their eyes (Kimbrough's right and Olivencia's left). The injury stoked Kimbrough.

Charles P. saus, Mountaineer Racetrack via AP Verquan Kimbrough leaves Ubaldo Olivencia reeling en route to a victory by unanimous decision. Click photo for larger image.

"When I saw the blood dripping down from my eye, I got an adrenaline rush," he said. " ... And I liked it."

He went on to worsen Olivencia's bleeding left eyebrow in the second, when Kimbrough caused him to stumble backward with a hard left seconds before the bell. Kimbrough got caught with a few shots himself in the fifth, giving him a slightly bloodied lip, but he reopened his opponent's cut eyebrow with a furious sixth. Even though he had the fight won on the judges' scorecards, he kept coming, scoring several thudding rights in the seventh and chasing much of the final round.

"The better the opponent is for me, the better I perform," said Kimbrough, a two-time national amateur champion.

Facing a foe he decisioned seven fights and one year ago, Monty Meza-Clay of Rankin provided the highlight of the undercard last night by quickly dispensing with James Merriweather of Toledo, Ohio. Meza-Clay (12-0) didn't need the four rounds of their first fight or the scheduled eight for this one, registering a technical knockout at 1:46 of the second -- his eighth victory by KO.

Butler's Brian Minto (17-0) felled Kevin Tallon of Lawrenceburgh, Ind., on a TKO with two seconds left in the second.

The rest of the undercard was mostly first-round TKOs making winners of heavyweight Chris Koval (19-1) of Youngstown, Ohio, featherweight Cindy Serrano (6-0) of Brooklyn, N.Y., and lightweight Davey McBride (5-2) of Salem, Ohio. Welterweight Durrell Richardson (4-0) of Youngstown decisioned Baltimore's Matt Hill.