A decade ago we would have had an exciting showdown of elite fighters with these two, but it is no longer 2008. What do we make of Devon Alexander versus Andre Berto in 2018?
Devin Alexander (27-4-1, 14 KOs) was a major prospect from St. Louis being brought up by Don King as one of the controversial promoter’s last real contributions to the sport. He received his first real exposure on the bizarre 2008 HBO PPV pitting sad, old versions of Roy Jones Jr and Tito Trinidad against one another. That night young Devon craftily outboxed DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley for his first notable win.
Eighteen months and four fights later, Alexander received his first title shot against longtime top British junior welterweight Junior Witter. The St. Louis fighter exceeded expectations that night, easily dominating the veteran and causing him to retire after eight. In his first fight as a titleholder, Devon Alexander immediately jumped into a unification fight on HBO with hard nosed Colombian puncher Juan Urango on HBO. That night in 2010 was undoubtedly the peak of Devon Alexander in my view. Sure, he was expected to win, but the way in which he destroyed Urango with a highlight reel finish in the eighth was really something else. Urango had the reputation of being an extremely durable man following his brave performance against a still elite Ricky Hatton, but Alexander put him down and out mercilessly.
Unfortunately, the dominance didn’t hold. Since then, Alexander has mostly been down with one very significant up. After the Urango show, Devon put on a poor performance against tricky Ukranian Andriy Kotelnik. Many feel he should not have gotten the decision. Next he met Timothy Bradley and was largely dominated. He rebounded with a win against Lucas Matthysse, but again, like with the Kotelnik fight, few watching it really felt like he deserved the decision that he received in the end.
For one night and one night only, Devon Alexander the elite talent made a reappearance in his next fight in 2012. In February of that year, Alexander downright routed Marcos Maidana on HBO. Their fight was a bell to bell outclassing. As Maidana rose to great heights in his destruction of Adrien Broner and two fight series with Floyd Mayweather Jr while at the same time Devon Alexander struggled, this fight became more and more of an outlier. You can’t take it from the former unified junior welterweight titleholder though. He put on the performance.
Alexander did become a two division titleholder with a win over an aging, and never really great Randall Bailey that same year at welterweight, but that was a pretty tedious fight to watch. After a soft defense, Alexander lost the title in a minor upset to now elite welterweight Shawn Porter. He was supposed to be auditioning for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr, but Devon forgot to win first.
He returned with a tougher than expected win over Jesus Soto Karass before losing widely against Amir Khan. That night looked like rock bottom, but it wasn’t. Khan is extremely talented and highly skilled despite his flaws, so losing big to him is something that happens to a lot of guys. Losing his bounceback fight to Aaron Martinez was a different story. Don’t get me wrong, Aaron Martinez can fight and was coming off a good performance against Robert Guerrero at the time. It is just that he is basically a gate keeper, a tough guy with little athletic talent and no power. Someone with the physical gifts of Devon Alexander is not supposed to have any trouble with an Aaron Martinez, let alone lose to him.
After that fight the St. Louis fighter took two years off, not returning until this past November against soft touch Walter Castillo. A lot emerged about Alexander’s struggles in the build up to that fight, namely his very quiet and personal addiction to painkillers. The basic narrative that emerged was the Alexander stopped living up to his talents because of his addiction. Now he is clean and back. To help that story, he did look pretty good against Castillo too. Not only did he look good against a regional level guy, but Devon also went on to dominate Victor Ortiz in his most recent fight in February. The fight came back a bogus draw, but there is nothing the former two division titleholder can do about bad judging.
If Devon Alexander was supposed to be a top fighter in the sport, Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs) was supposed to be a star. The Haitian-American was a top amateur that HBO latched onto early in his pro career back when HBO really meant something in the sport. The premium network paid Andre millions to take showcase fight after showcase fight culminating in a gimme world title against Miguel Rodriguez in 2008. The new titleholder did at least deliver a sensation uppercut that night, but he wasn’t doing this stuff against top opponents. Reality star but overmatched pro Steve Forbes didn’t help much as Berto’s first defense either.
Luis Collazo was a different story though. I don’t think he was really supposed to be though as Collazo sort of made his modern spoiler reputation from this fight, but he was. Luis put on an excellent performance and really pushed Berto in that fight. We learned something about Andre here though and it is that he is absolutely a fighter. A fierce, late rally kept the young titleholder with a belt around his waist. Over the next couple years Berto fell back into old habits though. He rallied off three straight wins over guys who had already been shown to be a bit beneath the sport’s highest levels going in to 2011.
That is the year he met Victor Ortiz. Now Ortiz himself has been an enigma who followed a similarly disappointing career path of underachievement relative to incoming hype, but for one night only the two men made magic in the ring. Both men should an absolutely tremendous level of heart in the brutal contest. Both men were down twice in one of the best fights of the year. Unfortunately for Berto, however, he didn’t get his hand raised in the end. It didn’t hurt him, exactly, but it was a loss.
That was 2011 and pretty much it for Andre Berto. He returned with a lower level win, but then got upset in another war with Robert Guerrero. He fought his heart out, but he lost. Next came an even bigger disaster against longtime gatekeeper Jesus Soto Karass. The former titleholder again showed his immense heart and grit in fighting through injury, but after hurting his shoulder a one armed Berto couldn’t hold Soto Karass off and was stopped late. Andre responded by stepping down again and reeling off two straight wins, the second of which was a decent one against Josesito Lopez, but it didn’t help against Floyd Mayweather Jr. I’m sure the brawler appreciated the payday though. Since then Andre rematched Ortiz and survived an early knockdown to score a finish himself in the fourth before getting absolutely mauled and dominated by a modern top welterweight in Shawn Porter last year.
I kind of expect this to be it for Andre Berto. He’s become a low key action star and will always give it his all, but at 35 how much can he really have left? He’s taken some damage in there. Plus, Devon Alexander’s painkiller addiction recovery story is a plausible explanation as to why he so suddenly seemed to fall off a cliff as a fighter. A decade ago who knows who would have won this fight, but in 2018 I suspect Alexander will take it. Berto will fight the whole way though. We know that much.
The undercard will feature two fights. Peter Quillin (33-1, 23 KOs) and J’Leon Love (24-1-1, 13 KOs) meet at super middleweight in the co-main event. This is a must win fight for both men. Both guys took bad losses and proceeded to vanish from the spotlight and both men return to it here on FOX. It is a good bit of matchmaking in that sense, but it also isn’t particularly exciting in theory. Neither is the opener in which recent former junior welterweight titleholder Sergey Lipinets (13-1, 10 KOs) moves up to welterweight against well worn PBC trial horse Erick Bone (20-5, 8 KOs). It isn’t like Bone is some bum in there, but he doesn’t have the talent to realistically be expected to compete with an elite athlete like Lipinets.
All in all this card is sort of a downer. The main event is an Andre Berto fight so it could be a war, but I don’t think Alexander will want that and I definitely think he is capable of avoiding it. Basically we are spending a FOX main event on seeing which man can be sacrificed to a young top welterweight like Thurman, Spence, Garcia, or Porter next. I don’t see that as an ideal use of precious major network time, but then again I don’t absolutely hate it either. This show is what it is in the end and nothing more.
The broadcast starts early at 7:30 PM Eastern with prelim bouts on FS2 two hours earlier. Those will definitely feature Marcus Browne as he as listed as the main event, but could also show the likes of Luis Collazo, Richard Commey, and/or several prospects.
