Devon Alexander earned a split-decision victory over Lucas Matthysse of Argentina in a 10-round junior welterweight fight on Saturday night.
Two judges scored the fight 96-93 — one for Alexander and the other for Matthysse. The third judge scored it 95-94 for Alexander.
“He was a rough and tough fighter,” Alexander said. “I made a conscious decision to bring the fight out in me because people had their doubts about me.”
The fight was fairly even throughout, with both boxers connecting with several good shots to the head. Alexander (22-1) was knocked down early in the fourth round when Matthysse (28-2) landed a left hook, but he quickly jumped back up.
“The knockdown was a flash knockdown,” Alexander said. “After that, I had to pull it out of myself to win the fight.”
The victory came about five months after Alexander lost to Timothy Bradley in a title fight in Michigan after an accidental head-butt closed Alexander’s left eye. The ringside doctor stopped the bout in the 10th round, allowing Bradley to hold onto his WBO belt while taking Alexander’s WBC title with an unanimous technical knockout.
“I had flashbacks from my last fight and I wasn’t going to lose two fights in a row,” Alexander said.
It was Matthysse’s fourth fight in the US. He suffered his only other loss — a split-decision against Zab Judah — in Newark, New Jersey, on Nov. 6 last year.
“I gave it my all,” he said. “It was a tough fight. I did the best I could and I thought I won, but once again I was robbed.”
On the undercard, Cornelius Bundrage (31-4) retained his IBF junior middleweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Sechew Powell (26-3), the top-ranked challenger. After the final bell, Bundrage spat in the face of Powell, who attempted to land a punch before being tackled by the referee into the corner.
Also on the card, Bermane Stiverne (21-1-1) scored a technical knockout 43 seconds into the 10th round against Ray Austin (28-6-4) to take the vacant WBC silver heavyweight title.
Tavoris Cloud (22-0) retained his IBF light heavyweight belt with a technical knockout against Yasaf Mack (29-4-2) when the referee stopped the fight with 3 seconds left in the eighth round of a scheduled 12-round fight.
STURM V MACKLIN
AP, COLOGNE, GERMANY
Felix Sturm retained his WBA middleweight title with a contentious split-decision win over challenger Matthew Macklin of Ireland at the Lanxess Arena on Saturday.
Two judges awarded it 116-112 in favor of the defending champion fighting in his hometown of Cologne, while the other scored it 115-113 to Macklin after a thrilling fight.
“I was very strong, stronger than Felix and I won, no doubt,” Macklin said in German. “I hope Felix will give me another fight, maybe in November.”
Sturm successfully defended his title for the 10th time since losing it to and winning it back from Javier Castillejo in 2006-2007.
The 32-year-old said Macklin surprised him in the first three or four rounds.
“I made a mistake at the start and allowed him too much space.” Sturm said. “We’ll see each other again soon.”
Macklin, a former Irish, British and European middleweight champion, had the better of the early rounds, but Sturm used his experience and greater accuracy to fight his way back and convince the judges.
Sturm, a German of Bosnian parentage, improved his record to 36-2-1 with 15 knockouts, while the 29-year-old Macklin — who was born and fights out of Birmingham, England — dropped to 28-3 with 19 knockouts.
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