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Alcine Is Looking To Go To
Welterweight; Stevenson Eyes Bute Or Andrade/George Winner
Daniel Cloutier
Two hours after his surprising win against the young
Montrealer David Lemieux in the ring of the Bell Center
Theater in Montréal, Joachim Alcine, the former WBA super
welterweight champion of the world, said a rematch with
Lemieux is not probable because he is looking to continue
his career in the welterweight division.
“Lemieux was certainly 15 pounds heavier than me last
night,’ said Alcine. “The Middleweight division is not
natural for me. I know that with the good training that I do
now, I can evolve in the 147 pounds division. I will have a
serious discussion about that with my trainer my manager in
the next week. A rematch with Lemieux will be out of
question if I am boxing in the welterweight division.
Yvon Michel, the boss of the GYM group said, “We offered to
Joachim the chance to fight Lemieux, but at the condition
that Lou DiBella was accepting to give us options on the
next three Alcine’s fights. We will work in partnership with
DiBella in 2012, and a possible rematch with Lemieux is part
of that deal. Joachim was extremely impressive Saturday
night. The fight was extremely close, I thought that Lemieux
won it, but I got to admit that Joachim got one or probably
the best performance of his career.”
Alcine (33-2-1) was more than happy after the fight. “With
the experience and the maturity, I really believe that I am
better than never now,” said the Montrealer Haitian of 35
years. “I knew that with a perfect preparation, I could
surprise Lemieux and the GYM group. I was extremely hungry
and motivated. For a month, everybody in Canada was saying
that I was a declining boxer, that at 35 years old my best
time was behind me. Wrong! But I have a tremendous respect
for Lemieux. He gave me a very tough fight. He gave me a
better opposition than Travis Sims in Connecticut in 2007
when I dethroned Simms as WBA super welterweight champion of
the world. David is very talented. With more experience and
maturity he will become a world champion in two or three
years. He did not learn yet, like me, to pace oneself in the
action. The keys of my win? My toughness helped me to resist
to the several Lemieux powers shots in the first half of the
fight, and the fact that I paced myself. I was clearly more
energetic than David in the second half of the bout.”
Lemieux (15-2-0) looked a bit discouraged after is second
loss in a row. This defeat by majority decision (116-112,
116-112 and 114-114) cost him the WBC International
middleweight title.
“I am suffering more mentally than physically now,” said the
young boxer. “I am so disappointed. I worked very hard to
win that bout, and I think I deserved the win, but the
judges have decided that Joachim was the best man in the
ring. What can I do? The only thing I can do is to return in
the gym soon and work harder and harder.”
Several writers in the press room estimated that Lemieux was
deserving a draw (114-114), considering that each fighter
had probably dominated six rounds.
Yvon Michel was especially happy by the Adonis Stevenson’s
performance. The Montrealer southpaw, a Haitian native like
Alcine, won the NABA, NABO and IBF International
championship in beating the American Aaron Pryor Jr. by TKO
in the 9th round.
Stevenson (16-1-0) floored Pryor (16-5-0) four times.
“You can bet that Adonis will be ranked soon IBF second
contender,” said Michel. “The winner of the fight
Andrade-George will be ranked first. We will see if Bute
will fight his first contender after his bout against the
Super Six winner (Carl Froch or Andre Ward), but if not, the
IBF could organize a world championship fight between Adonis
and Andrade, or Adonis and George. We will keep Adonis
active. He will fight February 18th in Montréal, and
possibly in April. Our goal is to involve him in a world
championship in 2012. The IBF, WBA and WBO titles are all
good options for him.”
Stevenson seemed to be on cloud nine after this important
win. “I am persuaded that 2012 will be my year,” said
Stevenson. “I want absolutely to fight for a major world
title. My first target is Lucian Bute. Lucian is saying that
several top fighters in the super middleweight division are
afraid of him, but not me. Believe me! I just got the most
important win of my career. Pryor is very tall, he has very
long arms, but my tenacity paid off. I was using my body
punches at the beginning of the fight, and this strategy set
the table for my power shots at the head.”
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