Family Arena, Saint Charles, Missouri — In a “must win” contest in the rough jr. welterweight division, St. Louis native, Devon Alexander (22-1, 13 KOs) came away with a 10-round split decision victory over Argentina’s heavy-handed Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KOs)
The fight, an HBO Boxing After Dark feature, played out pretty much true to form, with the mobile southpaw, Alexander, boxing from the outside and the puncher, Matthysse, plodding forward.
Matthysse scored heavily with solid body work and managed to drop the former title holder in the fourth round with a straight right hand.
The apparently tiring Alexander dropped several of the last rounds, leading many to believe that Matthysse would be headed for a decision win. However, the judges scorecards told a different story with one judge ruling in favor of the Argentine, 96-93, but the other two scoring the bout 95-94 and 96-93 in favor of Alexander. The Boxing Tribune scored the fight 95-94 in favor of Matthysse.
Tavoris Cloud (23-0, 19 KOs) successfully made the third defense of his IBF light heavyweight title by stopping Yusaf Mack (29-4-2, 17 KOs) in the eighth round of a competitive contest.
Mack came out boxing, looking to show his aggressive opponent angles and offset any offensive surges from the defending champion. Cloud, for his part, stayed in the game, stalking Mack and gradually cutting the distance on a tiring rival.
The end came in the eighth when a Cloud left hook staggered Mack against the ropes, allowing him to punish and eventually drop his challenger. Mack beat the referee’s count, but was in no shape to continue.
On the opening bout of the televised card, Haitian-Canadian heavyweight, Bermane Stiverne (21-1-1, 20 KOs) stopped veteran Ray Austin (28-6-4, 18 KOs) in the tenth round of their twelve round contest.
Stiverne seemed to be a half-step behind for most of the bout, kept at bay by a long, pawing jab from Austin. A big hook to the temple of a bent-over Austin dropped the 40-year-old former world title challenger in the tenth, leading to the ref waving off the fight.
In a non-televised bout on the same card, Cornelius Bundrage (31-4, 18 KOs) retained his IBF jr. middleweight title against former vanquisher, Sechew Powell (26-3, 15 KOs) via unanimous decision by scores of 115-113, 119-109, 117-111
Also, cruiserweight prospect, Ryan Coyne (17-0, 6 KOs) won a unanimous twelve-round decision over David McNemar (13-1, 10 KOs)
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