Photo Credit: Douglas Defelice/Premier Boxing Champions
Andre Berto overcame an early questionable knockdown to outwork a tiring Devon Alexander and take a close split decision win on Saturday night.
The first half of the bout was carried by Alexander’s sharp southpaw jab and peppering straight lefts. Berto often found himself stuck at mid-range where the taller Alexander teed off with clean shots.
In the third, Alexander scored a dubious knockdown when he followed up a straight left with two blatant rabbit punches. Berto stumbled to the canvas but the ref still ruled the fall as a knockdown.
Starting in the fifth, the constant wrestling began to wear on Alexander. The St. Louis southpaw’s punch activity dropped and Berto, while not landing many clean shots, was more active to the body and moving forward. In rounds 10 and 12, Berto finished the rounds strong with several eye-catching combination flurries.
Berto’s aggression was rewarded with scores of 115-112 twice and 112-115. BeatsBoxingMayhem scored it for Alexander 115-112.
The decision is another disappointment for Alexander, who faded late and fought to a controversial draw with Victor Ortiz in his last bout.
The co-feature saw Peter Quillin resurrect his career with a lopsided 10-round decision win over J’Leon Love. The fight wasn’t entertaining due to the reluctance of Love. He refused to engage and spent the majority of the fight backpedaling and shying away from any exchanges.
Quillin won with scores of 99-91 and 98-92 twice.
It’s impossible to gauge Quillin’s mental state as Love literally offered no resistance. To Quillin’s credit, we may find out soon enough as he’s on record listing George Groves and James DeGale as desired opponents.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 