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One On One With Joachim "Ti-Joa"
Alcine
By Jeff Emond Jeffrey
From 1999 to 2004, Joachim Alcine was one of the most
promising prospects in Canada with an undefeated record of
21 wins and 14 knockouts. Along the way, he won the
Canadian, IBA, WBA Fedalatin and NABA light middleweight
titles. His first knockout win over the very popular
Stéphane Ouellet really made Alcine a star. Soon after, his
victories over Carl Daniels, Marco Antonio Avendo and Javier
Mamani made him a contender. In 2007, an inspired
performance on strong southpaw Travis Simms made him the WBA
light middleweight champion and the first ever Haitian born
champion in boxing.
Unfortunately, in July 2008, a single left hand for Daniel
Santos turned the dream of Alcine into a nightmare. He lost
his title and was badly knocked out. After two lackluster
showing with Eric Mitchell and Christophe Canclaux, Alcine
tasted defeat again in a brutal first round technical
knockout at the hands of Alredo Angulo.
For Joachim Alcine, all theses events are in the past, what
matter now is the present and the dream to reclaim is
championship belt. After a two years absence in Canada, Ti-Joa
is back. But first, he must get through
David Lemieux, which will be no easy task.
Today, Alcine agreed to talk about his career
Jeff Emond Jeffrey : Good Morning Joachim . How are you?
Joachim Alcine: I’m doing very well.
JEJ: December 17 2004, you won a first round knockout over
hometown hero Stéphane Ouellet. How do you picture your
victory?
JA: It’s a huge accomplishment for me. Ouellet was and will
remain one of the biggest stars in Canada involved in
boxing. At this time is return to the ring was highly
anticipated after a three years absence and I felt I had to
give the performance of a lifetime and I did. But my goal
was to make the fans of Ouellet my fans, since he had a huge
popularity especially with is win on Davey Hilton Jr. I saw
that fight like a passing of the torch.
JEJ: From that point, you have beaten notable opponents like
Carlos Bojorquez, former WBA light middleweight champion
Carl Daniels, Elio Ortiz, Marco Antonio Avendo and Javier
Mamani. How do you feel about those victories?
JA: Very good, because those are good and durable fighters
that I beat to make it to the top. None of those fights were
easy and i worked very hard in the gym to secure those wins.
JEJ: In july 2007, you became the WBA light middleweight
champion by defeating Travis Simms in front of his home
crowd of Connecticut, USA. How do you describe this fight?
JA: Well, I knew i had to be careful against Simms, he was
favoured to win it by the Americans experts. That guy could
punch and was a southpaw. More so, I had to fight him in his
backyard like you said. In the first rounds, I studied him
and felt his power a little bit, but I had the fight well
under control. If I remember correctly I lost a point for
hitting behind the back of the head for no good reasons, so
I felt they would try to take away my lead. So I stepped up
my rhythm and brought him down in the ninth round of the
fight. I finally made my dream come true and became
champion. But i have to say, this was not the best of me,
even if I won, I know I can always do more and improve. You
will see in December.
JEJ: After your loss to former 3 times world champion Daniel
Santos and Alfred Angulo, some experts and writers said that
you were done and you were slower in the ring. Do you agree
with this?
JA: Not at all. Those losses were benedictions to me, I
learned a lot in those fights and did good things in the
Santos fight. I got hit by a punch that I could not see and
this sort of thing happens all the time in boxing. But I
wasn’t focused in the Santos fight, in fact I felt lost even
before the fight happen, my mind was not set on him. Now I’m
very focus and I don’t thing I slowed down, because I never
had a better training camp then the one I’m having right
now. I can’t wait to be back in the ring again. The most
important thing for me is to motivated and totally focus on
what I have to do to beat Lemieux.
JEJ: Did you felt left to yourself your former promoter GYM
and management team after the Santos fight?
JA: In some ways I did. But that’s all in the past right now
and I’m not coming back for vengeance, god will handle
vengeance, not me. I just want to prove to them that I can
beat Lemieux, more importantly I want to prove it to myself.
JEJ: Some people think you are a stepping stone for a hard
puncher like Lemieux. They even said that you won’t last
long in the ring, referring to your first round Technical
knockout lost to Angulo. Your reactions?
JA: My goal is to prove them wrong of course. I know Lemieux
is gonna come hard and early like in all his fights. But I
will keep him at bay and make him lose a lot of steam. As
soon as it happens and it will, he will be defenseless and
I’ll hurt him.
JEJ: Thank you for your time Joachim and good luck
JA: It was my pleasure.
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