Andre Berto kick started his career on FOX tonight with a split decision win over Devon Alexander. It wasn’t always pretty on the inside, but a win is a win. Peter Quillin picked up a dull win in the co-feature while Sergey Lipinets was lucky to win a decision in te opener.
After a relatively even opening round that Andre Berto (32-5, 24 KOs) likely edged with one right hand, Devon Alexander (27-5-1, 14 KOs) began to take over the fight in the second round. He landed a particularly nice uppercut that seemed to shake Berto a bit, brining him in to clinch for the remaining of the round. Alexander would top this in the third by scoring a knockdown, but it was a pretty bogus call. The St. Louis native definitely landed a straight left to start the sequence. It didn’t drop Berto though. Instead, two obvious and blatant shots to the back of the head right in front of the referee did the damage. Still, it was called a knockdown. In truth Berto was getting an extremely raw deal from the officiating at this point. He responded with a better fourth round at least, but it still might not have been enough to win it.
Berto continued the positive momentum in the fifth. It was close, but he landed a couple nice right hands late that I thought were enough to take the round. Devon reasserted himself in the sixth though by re-establishing his left straight down the pipe as the defining punch of the three minute frame. The Haitian-American’s heart bled through as he began to literally bleed from his forehead in the seventh. He bothered Alexander with a body shot and rallied for his best sequence of the fight by far. Despite his cup literally falling out in the eighth, Andre continued his rally. Devon Alexander was clearly tiring. I had the fight even in terms of rounds going into its last third with Alexander up a point thanks to the official knockdown. And yes, I just said Berto’s cup fell off in that round. It is a thing that happened.
The former two division titleholder needed to make a stand and break Berto’s momentum in the ninth. He succeeded. After looking weak for the past few rounds, Alexander came out and clearly did the better work. He also may have buzzed Berto with a straight left in the round. Andre Hunter implored his new student to come out and take the last three rounds, but he didn’t do it in the tenth. Berto suddenly looked tired too as the first double digit round devolved into a mauling, clinch filled mess. He did probably muscle out the eleventh in those messy infighting exchanges due to Alexander’s fatigue though. Thanks to the knockdown point, my card was dead even going in the twelfth and final round. Both men fought like it too in the best round of the fight. They both landed some excellent shots on their exhausted foes, but Devon Alexander definitely managed to get the better shots of the two to close the fight in my view. It was definitely one of several close rounds in this fight though.
I scored this one 114-113 for Devon Alexander. This makes the bogus knockdown call the difference on my card. I don’t feel good about it, but a judge needs to score the fight as called by the referee. Official scores came back as follows: 114-113 Alexander, 115-112 Berto, and 115-112 for Andre Berto. With all the close rounds, I don’t mind the wider cards for Berto all that much. I’m also glad that the knockdown didn’t matter in the scoring.
In a second straight garbage fight following a terrible opener, “Kid Chocolate” Peter Quillin (34-1-1, 23 KOs) returned to our airwaves with a unanimous decision win over former prospect J’Leon Love (24-2-1, 13 KOs) at super middleweight. Other than a fun Quillin rally in the eighth round, nothing happened of note throughout ten brutal to watch rounds in this one. The blame here falls square on the shoulders of J’Leon. He circled away and circled away and circled away and… circled away. He didn’t fight for ten rounds. Having no footwork, all Quillin could really do in response is lunge in wildly with power shots. Normally he missed the moving target, but once and a while he landed on his way to a clear decision win.
Former junior welterweight titleholder Sergey Lipinets (14-1, 10 KOs) picked up a majority decision win in his welterweight debut over gatekeeper Erick Bone (20-6, 8 KOs). That is what the record books will say, anyway. I thought the Ecuadorian underdog clearly won more rounds though, scoring the contest 97-93 in his favor all the while thinking I was pretty generous for Lipinets in giving him three rounds. He just didn’t land punches. Bone barely landed shots, but he did hit with some behind his movement. I’m not exactly up in arms because no one went out and won this one, really. I just thought Bone lost it clearly less. Lipinets is the house fight though. Of course he would get a pair of atrocious 99-91 and 98-92 cards because boxing.
