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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
Décarie Is A Perfectionist
By Daniel Cloutier
MONTRÉAL - Apparently, around 75% of the Canadian boxing
fans were predicting an easy win for the Toronto Romanian
Victor Lupo December 17th in Québec City. Lupo (19-2-2), who
won his previous fight against the former WBC super
lightweight champion of the world, the British Junior
Witter, was supposed to give to the Montrealer Antonin
Décarie (26-1-0) a very tough night in the ring of the
Colisée.
Surprise! Décarie clearly won this fight. Jean Pascal’s best
friend dominated 10 or 11 rounds of this WBC welterweight
international championship 12 round bout.
“Antonin had a great tactical fight, and he showed his clear
domination technically,” said Marc Ramsay, the trainer of
Décarie, Pascal and David Lemieux. “If his performance
surprised a lot of people who believed that Lupo was too
strong physically, and too mature to lose against Antonin,
it did not surprise me at all. Antonin has an incredible
determination. He is a perfectionist in the gym, who wants
to learn new things everyday. He will surprise a lot of
boxing fans in the next years. He is the first fighter to
dominate Lupo for 10 or 11 rounds.”
In the next WBC ratings, Décarie will be ranked between the
10 to the 15 positions.
Décarie is dreaming to fight on HBO in a major fight.
“Antonin is a young 29 years old,” said the promoter Yvon
Michel.” Like Eric Lucas was, he is a late boomer. He will
continue to face boxers ranked in the world this year and
next year, and if he still is showing progression, you will
see him in a world championship fight in 2013 or 2014. But,
we don’t want to rush him to a world championship fight. As
you know, there is a lot of traffic in the welterweight
division now, with Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr.,
Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz. Eventually, these fighters
will retired or move up in the super welterweight division,
and that moment, we will see a good competition with the
relief in the welterweight division, including Décarie.”
Stevenson Meets with the Grant’s Brothers
Adonis Stevenson (16-1-0), who is back in training in
Detroit to work with Emmanuel Steward, met the Grant’s
Brothers last weekend. A southpaw from Montréal, Stevenson,
who will fight the American Jesus Gonzales (27-1-0) February
18th at the Bell Center Theater, in a IBF super middleweight
elimination bout (for the # 2 spot), met Howard and Otis
Grant last week-end. The Grant’s brothers were his trainers
last year. In December, Stevenson decided to train in
Detroit and used Steward has trainer.
“I approached Howard and Otis to ask them to work in my
corner February 18th, with Emmanuel,” said Stevenson. “They
did not say yes or no. They are supposed to confirm their
decision when I will be back in Montréal February 10th.”
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