BRIDGEPORT, Conn. --- A man with an eye for the live underdog and a spare $100 bill in his pocket could have turned it into $2800 in a bit over an hour Saturday night. Two world titles changed hands on Don King’s ‘Fistic Fireworks’ card at the Harbor Yard Arena when, shortly on the heels of Nonito Donaire’s stunning one-punch kayo of Vic Darchinyan, Joachim Alcine outpointed hometown favorite Travis Simms to win the WBA middleweight belt.
Born and raised in nearby Norwalk, Simms had fought only once before in his home state, a matter for which the people of Connecticut should probably be grateful. Although he dominated former champion Jose Rivera to solidify his claim on the WBA title, Simms was alternately boring and ineffectual in allowing it to slip away against the Hatian-born Canadian.
During the first round, Simms seemed to be more interested in complaining to referee Mike Ortega than in fighting his opponent. Simms claimed that the southpaw Alicine was stepping on his foot, and while his plea was rewarded when Ortega stopped the bout to warn Alcine, Simms had invited the referee’s intervention, and both contestants would see a lot more of Ortega than they wished before the night was over.
The first half of the fight consisted of a six-round clinch-fest, but in the sixth Ortega took a point from Alcine for hitting on the break.
“I felt like he was ahead after the first few rounds, so I picked it up,” Alcine would say later.
By the seventh Alcine’s jab was beginning to find its mark, and in the eighth Simms wrapped his arm around the challenger’s neck and then hit him behind the head. This time Ortega hit Simms with a one-point deduction.
A round later, Alcine caught Simms off-balance with a jab that sent him to the canvas. Simms protested vehemently as Ortega began his count, but while it might not have been much of a knockdown, the referee was clearly within his rights.
“That wasn’t a knockdown,” Simms would complain later. “The ring was covered with sweat and water. You need to use good judgment in situations like that.”
Simms went down again in the eleventh, but this time Ortega did (correctly) rule it a slip.
Alcine, in any case, was in such command over the last half of the bout that neither the knockdown nor the penalty point bad any bearing on the outcome.
Tommy Kaczmarek had Alcine winning 116-109, Glenn Feldman 115-110, and George DiGabriel 114-111. The Boxing Talk scorecard concurred with DiGabriel’s.
“I still feel like I’m the champion, but this was his night,” said the beaten Simms. “I have no excuses; I had an off night, and he won fair and square.”
“He’s not a bad boxer, but I thought he was a better puncher,” said Alcine. “For all the talking he did before the fight, I thought he would be more aggressive.”
(Simms would claim afterward that he hurt his left hand in the second round.)
Simms incurred his first loss in dropping to 26-1, while Alcine remained unbeaten at 29-0.
In the days before the fight Simms had looked past Alcine with talk of unification bouts against Cory Spinks and the winner of the WBC title fight between Carlos Baldomir and Vernon Forrest later this month. Now it’s Alcine’s turn to gloat about unifying the division.
“You didn’t see the best of me tonight because Simms was so awkward,” said the new champion. “But I know now I’m good enough to fight anyone in the division.”
In the co-feature, Donaire shocked Darchinyan with a thunderous left hook to score a fifth-round TKO and win the IBF flyweight title. Donaire, a little-known Filipino, had given the Australian-based Armenian champion his share of trouble over the first four rounds (we had the bout dead level going into the fifth, as did two of the ringside judges), and then early in the fifth Darchinyan what may have been the best punch Donaire ever threw.
Darchinyan went straight down, and when he attempted to arise he went staggering across the ring and fell, face-first, into the ring ropes, at which point, a minute 38 seconds into the fifth, referee Eddie Claudio signaled the fight at an end.
“I said before the fight one punch could make the difference between me and him,” said Donaire afterward. “I came in here as an underdog, and nobody believed in me, but I did it!”
“I got caught with a great punch,” said a rueful Darchinyan. “It happens in boxing.
“I’m okay, but, obviously, I’m very disappointed,” added Darchinyan, who voiced his desire for a rematch.
It was the first career loss for Darchinyan, now 28-1, while Donaire (18-1) avenged his older brother Glenn’s technical loss to Darchinyan at the Mandalay Bay last year.
“My brother told me,” said Nonito, “that (Darchinyan) wasn’t as tough as he thinks he is.”
At the bout’s conclusion, incidentally, the Connecticut commission somewhat bizarrely included judge’s totals for the fifth round, which never was completed.
That would have been strange enough, but according to the official scorecard, Steve Epstein, the judge who had scored the first four rounds for Donaire, scored the fifth – a round in which Darchinyan was left for dead – 10-9.
There’s probably a good explanation somewhere.
A third title bout on the Bridgeport card saw former 115-pound champion Luis Perez of Nicaragua win the vacant IBF bantamweight title with a seventh-round TKO of Genaro Garcia.
Perez had floored Garcia with a straight left in the second round, and the Mexican went down twice more from what referee Charlie Dwyer ruled slips. Perez, who had pretty much had his own way over the first six rounds, decked Garcia again with a short left early in the second, and although he gamely bounced up, Dwyer immediately cradled him in his arms and declared the hostilities at an end.
“I did the best I could,” said Garcia through an interpreter. “Perez had a lot of stamina, and he made the most of his reach advantage.”
“Garcia was strong,” said Perez, “but I think I won every round.” (He did, on the Boxing Talk scorecard, anyway.”)
Perez, in gaining his second world title, improved to 25-1, while Garcia is now 35-6.
Although Garcia looked the worst of the two afterward, it was the new champion who, experiencing tenderness in the middle of his chest, was taken to a Bridgeport hospital for observation after the bout.
The undercard produced two more significant upsets, as journeyman Cliff Couser demolished former heavyweight title challenger Monte Barrett and roly-poly Michigan opponent Demitrice King knocked highly-touted King heavyweight Bermaine Stiverne from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Couser (26-12-2) hurt Barrett with a short right late in the first, and then landed another just as the bell rang. Barrett woozily made it to his feet after the bell to take Danny Schiavone’s eight-count, and was visited by Dr. Michael Schwartz between rounds.
That Barrett had not fully recovered was soon apparent. Couser dropped him with a left-right combination, and while Monte got up again, when he took another hard right and a solid left hook with no response, Schiavone stopped it at 0:42 of the second. It was the third straight loss for the 36 year-old Barrett (31-6), who in his previous two outings had been stopped (in 11) by then-WBA champion Nikolai Valuev and outpointed by former champ Hasim Rahman.
Stiverne looked to be in for another easy night when he decked King with a right hand in the first round, but the Flint journeyman battled back to score a fourth-round TKO. After stunning Stiverne with a sweeping right, the opponent drove him into a neutral corner, where he hammered away with his right (while illegally clutching the ring rope for leverage with his left glove) until Johnny Callas stopped it at 1:59 of the round.
Stiverne fell to 12-1, while King improved to 12-15.
Fighting as a 210-pound heavyweight, perennial cruiserweight contender Guillermo Jones improved to 35-3-2 with a unanimous decision over Zack Page (13-14-1). The only knockdown came in the second, when Jones decked Page with a jab, while later in the same Jones drew a warning from Schaviaone after a low blow. Judges Steve Epstein and Don Trella both had Jones winning 79-72, while Duke Lawson had the Panamanian in front 78-74.
Devon Alexander of St. Louis remained unbeaten at 12-0 when he was awarded a third-round TKO (after multiple takedowns) over Marcus Luck (8-15-1) of Danville, Va, while Puerto Rican middleweight Sergio Rivera (2-0) outpointed Devin Laney (0-2) of Miami, with all three judges (Tom Kaczmarek, John McKaie, and Frank Lombardi) returning 39-37 scorcards.
A scheduled junior middleweight bout which was to have pitted former WBA champion Alex (Terra) Garcia against Nicaraguan Jose Rodriguez was scrapped a day earlier after Rodriguez scaled in at 167 at the weigh-in.
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FISTIC FIREWORKS
HARBOR YARD ARENA
Bridgeport, Conn.
July 7, 2007
JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Joachim Alcine, 152 1/2, Montreal, Canada dec. Travis Simms, 152 1/2, Norwalk, Conn. (12) (Wins WBA title)
BANTAMWEIGHTS: Luis Perez, 118, Managua, Nicaragua TKO’d Genaro Garcia, 118, Puebla, Mexico (7) (Wins vacant IBF title)
FLYWEIGHTS: Nonito Donaire, 111 1/2, General Santos City, Philippines KO’d Vic Darchinyan, 112, Vanadzor, Armenia (5) (Wins IBF title)
HEAVYWEIGHTS: Cliff Couser, 242, St. Louis, Mo. TKO’d Monte Barrett, 227, Queens, N.Y. (2)
Demetrice King, 270, Flint, Mich. TKO’d Bermaine Stiverne, 245, Laval, Canada (4)
Guillermo Jones, 210, Colon, Panama dec. Zack Page, 201 3/4, Warren, Ohio (8)
MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Sergio Rivera, 160 1/2, San Juan, Puerto Rico dec. Devin Laney, 162, Miami, Fla. (4)?
JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHTS: Devon Alexander, 140, St. Louis, Mo. TKO’d Marcus Luck, 143, Danville, Va. (3)
(ends)
