Every so often in this sport we get a challenger who is just so determined that they refuse to be denied of a victory. We saw one such fight earlier this year when Kiko Martinez broke down Jhonathan Romero with nothing short of sheer bloodymindedness.
we saw another fighter with that same desire to win earlier tonight as Shawn Porter (23-0-1, 14) took on IBF Welterweight champion Devon Alexander (25-2, 14) and literally took the fight to Alexander and refused to let Alexander fight back.
Whilst the first round was messy with Alexander getting his jab going and tying Porter up the second round saw Porter coming to life. By round 3 Porter was literally beating up the champion, he was getting inside, unloading on the champion and connecting with left hands. He not only connected cleanly on Alexander but several times he appeared to have Alexander ready to go down. The only thing keeping Alexander upright was the fact he held on to Porter at every opportunity getting a warning as a result.
Due to the domination in round 3 by Porter it wasn't out of the question to have given that round as a 10-8 to Porter who looked well on the way to forcing an early ending to the bout.
Porter's domination of the bout continued through the following rounds. Again he shook Alexander in rounds 4, 5 and 6. When Alexander try to hold he was merely pushed off and beaten up, when there was distance Porter was landing booming shots, often in combinations and by the end of the sixth Alexander was cut and looking like a man ready to lose his title.
By the midway point of the bout it seemed Alexander had just one hope, that Porter would punch himself out. Unfortunately for Alexander this did happen and instead Porter started beating Alexander with the jab. When this started to happen it was clear that Alexander had no way back in to this bout. He was being beaten on the inside, he was being beaten on the outside and he was just being beaten up.
For poor Alexander, whose right eye was cut, it wasn't just the headshots that Porter was connecting with but also body shots as he began to break up every part of Alexander. The only saving grace, if you can call it that, was that a headclash in round 9 opened up a nasty cut on Porter. Unfortunately the cut simply didn't bother Porter who continued to press the fight with relentless aggression.
Porter, who was well up going in to the championship rounds, seem to refuse to cruise the final rounds and instead continued to beat up Alexande as he made sure he took the decision.
Surprisingly, despite the dominance of Porter the three judges had the fight remarkably close with cards of 115-113 and two of 116-112. Sorry but those judges need question, Porter possible lost 2 rounds, not 4 or 5 as the judges had it.
Showing posts with label IBF Welterweight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IBF Welterweight. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 December 2013
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.
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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