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Alexander Tries To Rebound
By Nat Gottlieb Courtesy of HBO.com
Devon Alexander’s last two fights may have exposed a
possible flaw in an otherwise perfectly-skilled boxing
machine: he has trouble handling adversity. That may seem an
outlandish thing to say about a fighter who overcame an
incredibly nightmarish childhood to become a world champion.
But after he struggled to eke out a lackluster victory over
Andriy Kotelnik, and then lost his cool in a first career
loss to Tim Bradley, it’s a legitimate question. Alexander
is looking to bounce back on June 25 against power puncher,
Lucas Matthysse, who carries instant adversity in both
hands. The 24-year-old Alexander’s mettle will once again be
tested.
Few saw any flaws in Alexander as he cruised his way through
his first 19 fights, all victories. Having had an
illustrious amateur career in which he won 300 times with
only 10 losses, Alexander was looking like the next big star
on the horizon until he ran into Kotelnik, a former champion
with a variety of skills and tricks. Kotelnik seemed to
befuddle Alexander, and he abandoned both his game plan and
usually solid defense. Alexander won a unanimous decision,
116-112, on all three scorecards, but many felt Kotelnik had
done enough to win and was victimized by a home-town
decision.
Bradley didn’t have anywhere near the skill set of Kotelnik,
but his constant pressure and habit of leading with his head
clearly shook up Alexander. Three times over the first nine
rounds, Bradley’s head-lunging inflicted cuts, at least one
that was major. As he did with Kotelnik, Alexander tossed
his game plan and eventually lost a technical decision in
the 10th round after another vicious butt gouged his brow.
The ring physician examined Alexander and deemed him unable
to continue. Some say Alexander flat-out quit. That is open
to debate, with the answer known only by Alexander, but one
unavoidable conclusion is that again Alexander seemed to get
flustered. Even his trainer, Kevin Cunningham, doesn’t deny
that.
“After the third-round head butt, which was down to the
bone, it mentally took him out of the fight,” Cunningham
says. “Devon has had small cuts before, but this was a bad
one. You could stick your finger in it. With Bradley
continually lunging with his head, Devon’s focus become on
avoiding head butts, not his game plan, which was to expose
our opponent’s weaknesses. Kevin just failed to execute.”
Matthysse (28-1, 26 KOs) has a bunch of flaws, including
mediocre footwork, lack of variety in punches and a
less-than-stellar defense. But Matthysse does two things
that could force Alexander (21-1, 13 KOs) to come unglued:
he hits with the kick of a mule and constantly applies
pressure. Cunningham rejects the idea that his young fighter
unravels when the going gets tough. “He has no problems with
adversity,” Cunningham says. “And bear in mind he don’t
fight no cupcakes. Name me one junior welterweight with a
better resume than Devon. He went straight from Junior
Witter to Urango to Kotelnik and then Bradley.”
Taking on Matthysse with his 26 knockouts in 28 victories,
certainly isn’t an easier task. In fact, Cunningham says
“this fight is more dangerous than Bradley, because Bradley
did not have the knockout punch Matthysse has. After
Bradley, we wanted to come back against the best guy we
could, and we got the biggest puncher at 140 pounds.”
Matthysse could also easily be undefeated; his only loss a
split decision to Zab Judah, in which one point separated
them on all three scorecards.
To get Alexander re-focused, Cunningham took him to train in
the high altitude of Colorado Springs, 8,500 feet above sea
level. In camp the trainer did not concentrate on exploiting
opponent’s flaws. His prime task was to get Alexander back
to boxing like he is capable of. “He knows this time he has
to go out and take care of business,” Cunningham says. “He
has more talent in one hand that Matthysse has in his whole
body. Matthysse doesn’t have any defense; he doesn’t even
move his head. Kevin wants to show he is the fighter
everyone thought he was. We look at the loss to Bradley as
being similar to the first Leonard-Duran fight. Duran got
into Leonard’s head and didn’t fight to his abilities.”
One punch from Matthysse could get into Alexander’s head,
too. If that happens, he will have to prove once more he can
overcome adversity in order to regain lost stature.
TAVORIS CLOUD-YUSAF MACK
In the co-feature, unbeaten Cloud (22-0, 18 KOs) takes on
rugged veteran Yusaf Mack (29-3-2, 17 KOs). Cloud only
started boxing in 2004, and while he holds one of the belts
in the light heavyweight division, he has yet to lure the
kind of opponent for which a victory could elevate him to
star status. So far, his best foe has been Glen Johnson.
Mack is a solid opponent but he is not Bernard Hopkins, Chad
Dawson or Jean Pascal, targets Cloud covets. Those fights
will come, but not if he doesn’t take care of business with
Mack.
NBERMANE STIVERNE-RAY AUSTIN
Stiverne (20-1, 19 KOs) is a late blooming heavyweight
prospect with devastating punching power. The Haitian-born
Canadian started boxing at 27, but is being mentioned as a
possible opponent for Wladimir Klitschko. The 40-year-old
Austin (28-5-4, 18 KOs) was knocked out in two rounds by
Klitschko in 2007, and disqualified in his last fight
against heavyweight contender and Olympic gold medalist
Odlanier Solis. The main thing the aging Austin has going
for him is a big edge in experience. Stiverne needs to show
he can put away a trial horse like Austin if he is to move
closer to a title challenge.
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