Devon Alexander Ready for War: Saturday Boxing Showdown Awaits
Exclusive Interview by Samaarah Choubak
“I’m going to come back harder and stronger and you know it motivated me even more.” – Devon Alexander
Devon Alexander, 21-1, 13 KO’s, looked great in the media day workout in his home town and at the same time Lucas Martin Matthysse, 28-1, 26 KO’s, has been under intense training in California in the World Crown Sports Club. He’s known as the knockout artist and has been training extremely hard. His trainer has showed him how to perform his southpaw uppercut on the training bag exceptionally well and has said he will be knocking out Devon Alexander.
The training environment looks like a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with only one thing on their agenda: How to knock out Alexander. Now if they are going for this kind of game plan and Alexander already knows his opponent is a strong puncher, this means there will be a lot of excitement in the ring with two different styles. However, we don’t know who has the hunger to win more: Alexander who lost against Timothy Bradley or Matthysse who thinks he was robbed of his last fight.
Saturday will define a new champion… RSR sat down with Alexander to get his thoughts going into this Saturday’s fight.
SC: We know that you’ve had an outstanding amateur career under the tutelage of Kevin Cunningham and you won the silver gloves four times and are a junior Olympics champion. How do you think you’ve developed since that very young age?
Well when I first started amateur, you know I didn’t really know anything really about boxing. I was just throwing punches and just going with the flow but now professional, I have learned so much and I’ve learned how to turn my punches over and actually how to hurt the guy in the ring instead of just going in the ring and throwing punches. So it’s way different from amateur and you have to throw a lot of punches to let the judges know that you’re winning the fight by throwing a lot of punches. As a professional you don’t have to, so you can just settle down and you can just take your time and actually try and hurt the person. I really developed from there and I learnt a lot doing that and pacing myself in the ring.
SC: Tell us about the beginning of your professional career and when you defeated Vincent Torres in the first round by technical knockout. How did that make you feel?
Ah man, that made me feel so good and that was the beginning of my professional career. You know that was the beginning of my professional career and I didn’t know how it was going to go and I was just curious to see how I was going to do in my professional career…so and it felt really good to get that win and after that, I was just excited to get on the ring and continue to fight and continue to win at all costs.
SC: You went to win five further fights but you were stripped off the IBF Junior Welterweight Title for not fighting Kaizer Mabuza. Tell us what happened there?
Well at that time me and Bradley was the best in the 140 pound division…me and my coach and my team had no recognition of us fighting Mabuza or anyone at that time, and at that time, we were planning and training to fight Timothy Bradley and that’s what we had planned on doing. We didn’t see any reason why we would fight Mabuza when we could go and fight the one of the best in the 140 pounders in the world. We didn’t see no reason in going back, if we were to fight Mabuza it would of took us back, you never know what the outcome could of been, so it could of been too bigger change if we went on so we gave up the belt, I hate to give the belt up, the belts I love them as I worked hard my whole life so we had to do what we had to do you know and we had to move forward.
SC: There was big build up against Bradley back in January. The judges say it was an unintentional head butt, but what are your feelings about that?
Well at this point, I really let that fight go and in that fight I was doing what I was supposed to do and me and my coach was set out what we was supposed to do and you saw the result of that. It was my first loss and it was a blessing in disguise and now I’m going to come back harder and stronger and you know it motivated me even more. Like I said, I let that fight go and now it’s time to move on for a stronger comeback and going straight to the top again.
SC: Now you’re going to go straight to town on Saturday with Matthysse from Argentina first of all tell the fans the correct pronunciation of his name ?
Well his name is Matthysse. He’s one of the hardest punchers in the division and you know it’s going to be a good fight and he’s going to be coming to my home town and he’s going to work me and try to gun me down. You know I have to be ready and it’s going to be a good fight.
SC: Another Argentinean …so tell us how have you been preparing for this fight and how do you think you will do against him?
Everything is going good this is my first time in Colorado Springs and everything is going good and everything is on schedule and I’m not doing anything too much different…just listening to my coach more and going back to the drawing board and just do what I gotta do in the ring and prepare myself to beat Matthysse.
SC: What kind of advice has Kevin Cunningham been giving you different from what he taught you over few years or since your career started with him?
Well, as an amateur, I used to win everything and I didn’t worry about what people was thinking and I need to get back to that so this is no different from amateur and the thing is we get paid for this now so don’t the hype or the person get to you just go in there and beat these guys like I usually do and become the Devon Alexander I used to be so those are the true words spoken so that’s what I’m doing.
SC: What words do you have for your fans in England and young fighters around the globe?
When I was amateur I’ve been to England and I fought for the England Cup over there and I have a lot of friends over there and I love them over there so just work hard and you can receive the same success as I have because I came up over there as amateur and fought a couple of guys over there and it was so nice over there when I came so I would definitely love to visit over there again and just work hard and do what you gotta do and never give up.
SC: Any final words?
Well I want to thank you for having me and I love England.
(Interviewer’s Note: I want to thank Kevin Cunningham who has made this interview possible.)
Devon Alexander
Nickname: “Alexander The Great”
Division: Light Welterweight
Professional Record: 21-1, 13 KO’s
Date Opponent W-L-D Location Result
2011-01-29 Timothy Bradley 26-0-0 Pontiac, US L TD 10
WBC Light Welterweight Title
WBO Light Welterweight Title
2010-08-07 Andriy Kotelnik 31-3-1 Saint Louis, US W UD 12
IBF Light Welterweight Title
WBC Light Welterweight Title
2010-03-06 Juan Urango 22-2-1 Uncasville, US W TKO 8
WBC Light Welterweight Title
IBF Light Welterweight Title
2009-08-01 Junior Witter 37-2-2 Rancho Mirage, US W RTD 8
vacant WBC Light Welterweight Title
2009-04-24 Jesus Rodriguez 19-3-0 Saint Louis, US W KO 9
2008-12-11 Christopher Fernandez 16-5-1 Newark, US W TKO 3
2008-11-07 Sun-Haeng Lee 8-2-1 Chengdu, CN W TKO 4
2008-03-27 Miguel Callist 24-6-1 Saint Louis, US W UD 12
WBC Continental Americas Light Welterweight Title
2008-01-19 DeMarcus Corley 31-7-1 New York, US W UD 12
vacant WBC Continental Americas Light Welterweight Title
2007-10-13 Cory Peterson 7-0-0 Hoffman Estates, US W TKO 1
2007-07-07 Marcus Luck 8-14-1 Bridgeport, US W KO 3
2007-03-02 Scott Ball 8-2-0 Belterra, US W KO 7
2007-01-06 Maximino Cuevas 9-4-1 Hollywood, US W TKO 4
2006-07-08 Tyler Ziolkowski 8-3-0 Saint Louis, US W TKO 1
WBC Youth World Welterweight Title
2006-03-09 Seth Hebenstreit 0-1-0 Saint Louis, US W UD 6
2005-10-21 Kelly Wright 4-2-0 Saint Louis, US W UD 6
2005-09-30 Christian Nash 2-9-2 Stone Park, US W TKO 2
2005-06-02 John Rudolph 2-1-0 Saint Charles, US W TKO 3
2005-05-21 Felix Lora 6-1-2 Chicago, US W UD 6
2005-02-05 Donovan Castaneda 7-1-0 Saint Louis, US W UD 6
2004-06-03 Karl Hunter 0-13-0 Saint Louis, US W UD 4
2004-05-20 Vincent Torres 0-2-0 Sault Sainte Marie, US W TKO 1