Sunday 21 October 2012

Randall Bailey v Devon Alexander

This past weekend young American Devon Alexander (24-1, 13) successfully claimed the IBF Welterweight as he out worked the hard hitting, former champion Randall Bailey (43-8-0-1, 37) in a relatively poor match. Sadly, despite becoming a 2-weight world champion Alexander did little to really excite the fans.

The bout started slowly with Bailey looking to land his fearsome right hand, dubbed "The Stick of Dynamite" whilst Alexander was able to use his feet to dart in and out with his own shots in a very cautious opening. Sadly the opening round set the tone of the bout which rarely came alive.

It wasn't until round 5 that Bailey found any real success, landing two monster right hands on Alexander who took them startlingly well before firing back himself. In fact it appeared that not only could Alexander take Bailey's best shots, but could actually hurt Bailey himself, a rather surprising feature of the bout. Sadly this was one of the bouts few interesting rounds as most of the other rounds saw little action.

In round 6, both men were deducted a point for holding as the bout dipped again and the crowd showed their displeasure by loudly booing both men. Alexander, whilst clearly the busier man, wasn't busy enough and spent more time using his feet than his hands whilst Bailey was literally giving rounds away by doing nothing other than looking for an opportunity. It was dire.

Sadly despite the boos neither fighter really changed what they were doing over the following rounds and it appeared that both men were more interested in sending the viewers asleep, rather than their opponent.

Despite the lack of activity Bailey was on the receiving end of a nasty cut in the later rounds above his eye, though with so much of the bout gone and the inactivity of both men it was clearly not going to force an early stoppage and sadly the fans were forced to watch the final rounds. Like much of the bout, very little actually happened as Alexander continued his intelligent but cautious boxing.

By the time the scorecards were read out by Jimmy Lennon Jr, it was clear that Alexander had won due to the fact that he had actually done something. The surprises however came not only in the fact that the boos had become louder as the bout had finished but also just how little Bailey had done, with punch numbers being shown on the screen showing Bailey to have thrown less than 200 punches (198) over the 12 rounds! That's an average of 16.5.

For Alexander it's a win and a title, however it will be the sort of performance that will put fans off him, for Bailey however it's almost certainly the end. I'd advise Alexander to dine out on that title for as long as he can as he's not going to be a wanted man when he loses it. He made the fight stink. Sure he threw over 500 punches but he had an opponent in against him who was doing nothing.

For fight fans, this is one to avoid, at no point did a fight really break out.

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