Devon Alexander

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Devon Alexander
File:Devon Alexander.jpg
Alexander (right) vs. Corley, 2008
Statistics
Nickname(s) The Great
Rated at Light welterweight
Welterweight
Height Lua error in Module:Convert at line 452: attempt to index field 'titles' (a nil value).
Reach 69 in (175 cm)
Nationality American
Born (1987-02-10) February 10, 1987 (age 37)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Stance Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights 30
Wins 26
Wins by KO 14
Losses 4

Devon Alexander (born February 10, 1987) is an American professional boxer. Nicknamed "Alexander the Great", he has held the WBC and IBF light welterweight titles, as well as the IBF welterweight title.

Biography

Alexander grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of north St. Louis, Missouri in an area described as rough, gang- and drug-infested.[1] Alexander was mentored by various people at a young age including Former NFL players Eric Drain and Demetrius Johnson, principal of Clay Community Education Center Frank Muelhauser, and PE teacher, Brad Slinkard. He would later join the boxing gym that Kevin Cunningham, a former police officer and security officer at Clay Community Center, turned trainer, founded in the basement of an old police station.[2]

Thirty kids joined the boxing program of Cunningham, who had hoped to keep the kids out of trouble, off the streets, and in the ring. A stablemate of Alexander's, Cory Spinks would become welterweight champion. .[3]

Amateur career

Alexander had an outstanding amateur career, compiling a record of 300-10 under the tutelage of Cunningham. He was a four-time Silver Gloves champion from ages 10–14; three-time PAL national champion; Junior Golden Gloves and Junior Olympics national champion; 2003 United States national champion in the 19-and-under division; and 2004 United States light welterweight national champion. Alexander made it to the final round of the 2004 Olympic trials, where he battled Rock Allen to a draw and was knocked down once before losing on a tie-breaker.[4]

Professional career

Light welterweight

At age 17, Alexander made his professional debut, defeating Vincent Torres by first round technical knockout in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan.[4]

He went up against former WBO junior welterweight champion DeMarcus Corley on January 19, 2008, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Alexander easily defeated Corley by unanimous decision.[5]

Light welterweight title

On August 1, 2009, Alexander defeated Junior Witter to claim the vacant WBC light welterweight championship. Witter gave up on his stool after the eighth round, claiming that he had re-injured his left hand. Alexander was hurt by a right hand in round 2. All three judges had Alexander ahead at the time of the stoppage 79-73, 79-73, 80-72.

Alexander vs. Urango

Alexander was next scheduled to face two-time champion Juan Urango of Colombia in a title unification bout. The 6 March 2010 bout was held at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut and was televised on HBO's "Boxing After Dark" telecast.[2] To train for the fight, Alexander used a Las Vegas house lent by promoter Don King as training base.[3] Devon Alexander defeated Juan Urango by TKO in round 8. Alexander threw an uppercut which dropped Urango. Urango made the count but Alexander resumed his attack and threw a hook to Urango's temple which again dropped him. Urango stood up but was clearly dazed, resulting in a stoppage by the referee. Urango, who suffered his first KO defeat, called out Timothy Bradley after the fight, but a fight was never made because Bradley just moved up to welterweight.

In his next fight he faced Andreas Kotelnik, the former WBA Light Welterweight champion, in his hometown of St. Louis Missouri on 7 August in front of members of the St. Louis Rams, Evander Holyfield and Floyd Mayweather.[6] Alexander won the fight by a controversial unanimous decision with all judges scoring the fight 116-112.

On October 22, 2010, Alexander was stripped of the IBF Junior Welterweight title for not fighting the no. 1 contender, Kaizer Mabuza.

Alexander vs. Bradley

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Alexander's next fight, on January 29, 2011, took place against Timothy Bradley, which he lost via 10th round TD after an unintentional head-butt forced a stop to the bout.[7]

Alexander vs. Matthysse

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On June 25, 2011, Alexander defeated Lucas Matthysse in a controversial split decision. The judges scored the fight 96-93 and 95-94 for Alexander and 96-93 for Matthysse.

Welterweight

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On February 25, 2012 Alexander moved up to welterweight and put on a dominating performance against highly regarded and hard-charging Marcos Maidana. Alexander landed the right hook at will, catching Maidana with his left hand down throughout the contest. Maidana was seemingly surprised by both the speed and power Alexander displayed at his first fight at welterweight. Only one of the three judges had Maidana winning a round. The impressive nature of the win earned Alexander a title match with Randall Bailey in September 2012. Alexander was criticized by some however, for fighting illegally at some points during the fight.

Alexander was scheduled to fight titlest Randall Bailey as a main event on Showtime Championship Boxing on September 8, 2012, but Bailey withdrew due to injury. Their fight was replaced with the original undercard fight between Olusegun Ajose and Lucas Matthysse and an originally scheduled non-televised fight between J'Leon Love and Ramon Valenzuela was changed to a televised bout.[8]

Welterweight title

Alexander returned to action on October 20, 2012, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where he won the IBF Welterweight title by unanimous decision against Ring Top 10 Welterweight, Randall Bailey. The fight was fought at a comfortable pace for Alexander, with very little exchanges, as Bailey did not let his hands go very often. In a one sided fight, Alexander won his third world title in his second division.

Alexander's next fight was originally suppose to happen on January 19, 2013, against mandatory challenger and Ring No. 3 ranked Welterweight, Kell Brook. However, Brook suffered an ankle injury during training, and the fight was rescheduled for May 18, 2013 in Atlantic City.

Devon would go on to lose his next two biggest fights, losing his championship belt & status as a top contender after all boxing governing bodies removed Devon Alexander from their Top rankings.[9]

Shawn Porter loss

Alexander would lose the IBF Welterweight title to Shawn Porter on December 7, 2013 by unanimous decision with scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112.[10]

Amir Khan loss

Alexander lost the WBC Silver Welterweight title to Amir Khan on December 13, 2014 by a lopsided unanimous decision with scores of 119-109, 118-110, 120-108.[11]

Aaron Martinez loss

Alexander took on gate keeper Aaron Martinez on October 14, 2015 and was dominated through 10 rounds, en route to ultimately losing a unanimous decision.

Professional boxing record

26 Wins (14 knockouts, 12 decisions), 4 Losses (0 knockouts, 4 decisions), 0 Draws[7]
Res. Record Opponent Type Rd., Time Date Location Notes
Loss 26–4 United States Aaron Martinez UD 10 2015-10-14 United States Gila River Arena, Glendale, Arizona
Loss 26–3 United Kingdom Amir Khan UD 12 2014-12-13 United States MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevada For WBC Silver Welterweight title.
Win 26–2 Mexico Jesús Soto Karass UD 10 2014-06-21 United States StubHub Center, Carson, California
Loss 25–2 United States Shawn Porter UD 12 2013-12-07 United States Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York Lost IBF Welterweight title.
Win 25–1 United Kingdom Lee Purdy RTD 7 (12), 3:00 2013-05-18 United States Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey Retained IBF Welterweight title.
Win 24–1 United States Randall Bailey UD 12 2012-10-20 United States Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York Won IBF Welterweight title.
Win 23–1 Argentina Marcos Maidana UD 10 2012-02-25 United States Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 22–1 Argentina Lucas Matthysse SD 10 2011-06-25 United States The Family Arena, St. Charles, Missouri
Loss 21–1 United States Timothy Bradley TD 10 (12), 3:00 2011-01-29 United States Silverdome, Pontiac, Michigan Lost WBC Light Welterweight title.
For WBO Light Welterweight title.
Win 21–0 Ukraine Andreas Kotelnik UD 12 2010-08-07 United States Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri Retained IBF and WBC Light Welterweight titles.
Win 20–0 Colombia Juan Urango TKO 8 (12), 1:12 2010-03-06 United States Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut Retained WBC Light Welterweight title.
Won IBF Light Welterweight title.
Win 19–0 United Kingdom Junior Witter RTD 8 (12), 3:00 2009-08-01 United States Agua Caliente, Rancho Mirage, California Won vacant WBC Light Welterweight title.
Win 18–0 United States Jesus Rodriguez KO 9 (10), 0:58 2009-04-24 United States Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 17–0 United States Christopher Fernandez RTD 3 (8), 3:00 2008-12-11 United States Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey
Win 16–0 South Korea Sun-Haeng Lee TKO 4 (10), 0:19 2008-11-07 China Sichuan Gymnasium, Chengdu
Win 15–0 Panama Miguel Callist UD 12 2008-03-27 United States Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 14–0 United States DeMarcus Corley UD 12 2008-01-19 United States Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
Win 13–0 United States Cory Peterson TKO 1 (8), 2:59 2007-10-13 United States Sears Centre, Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Win 12–0 United States Marcus Luck KO 3 (8), 1:24 2007-07-07 United States Harbour Yard Arena, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Win 11–0 United States Scott Ball KO 7 (8), 0:59 2007-03-02 United States Belterra, Florence, Indiana
Win 10–0 United States Maximino Cuevas TKO 4 (4), 2:02 2007-01-06 United States Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood, Florida
Win 9–0 United States Tyler Ziolkowski TKO 1 (10), 2:40 2006-07-08 United States Savvis Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 8–0 United States Seth Hebenstreit UD 6 2006-03-09 United States The Spott, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 7–0 United States Kelly Wright UD 6 2005-10-21 United States Savvis Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 6–0 United States Christian Nash TKO 2 (4), 2:28 2005-09-30 United States Noa Noa Night Club, Stone Park, Illinois
Win 5–0 United States John Rudolph TKO 3 (4), 1:01 2005-06-02 United States The Family Arena, St. Charles, Missouri
Win 4–0 Dominican Republic Felix Lora UD 6 2005-05-21 United States United Center, Chicago, Illinois
Win 3–0 Mexico Donovan Castaneda UD 6 2005-02-05 United States Savvis Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 2–0 United States Karl Hunter UD 4 2004-06-03 United States Ambassador Club, St. Louis, Missouri
Win 1–0 United States Vincent Torres TKO 1 (4) 2004-05-20 United States Kewadin Casino, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Professional debut.

Controversy

Alexander took a strong stance against The Supreme Court of the United States of America legitimatizing same-sex marriage in the USA and tweeted homophobic statements that were later discussed on boxing articles the next day.[12][13][14]

See Also

References

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  7. 7.0 7.1 http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=254834&cat=boxer
  8. http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post/_/id/1804/love-valenzuela-elevated-to-co-main-event
  9. http://www.fightnews.com/rankings-2
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. http://www.espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/12026364/amir-khan-defeats-devon-alexander-unanimous-decision
  12. http://www.badlefthook.com/2015/6/26/8854865/devon-alexander-homophobic-twitter-tirade-gay-marriage
  13. http://www.thesweetscience.com/news/articles/21058-devon-alexander-lobbies-for-adam-and-eve-over-adam-and-steve
  14. http://www.rappler.com/sports/by-sport/boxing-mma/97601-devon-alexander-homophobic-rant

Further reading

External links

Awards and achievements
Vacant
Title last held by
Timothy Bradley
WBC Super Lightweight Champion
August 1, 2009 – January 29, 2011
Succeeded by
Timothy Bradley
Preceded by IBF Junior Welterweight Champion
March 6, 2010 – October 22, 2010
Stripped
Vacant
Title next held by
Zab Judah
Preceded by IBF Welterweight Champion
October 20, 2012 – December 7, 2013
Succeeded by
Shawn Porter