MONTREAL – Few observers gave Joachim Alcine much of a chance to beat rising middleweight prospect David Lemieux, but the 35-year-old showed he can still box.
Alcine (33-2-1) used a strong finish to overtake the flagging 22-year-old Lemieux (25-2), post a majority decision victory and restore his credibility as a top fighter by winning the WBC International middleweight title after a rousing battle between Montreal fighters on Saturday night.
”I had a lot to prove,” Alcine said. ”Lemieux was much younger than me.
”I’m supposed to be the old man at 35, but I think I have 10 good years ahead of me.”
Alcine won the WBA light middleweight title in 2007 but hasn’t looked world class since he lost it in a sixth round knockout to Daniel Santos a year later. He had fought only four times since then, and his last two results were a loss and a draw.
All that changed against Lemieux, as a rejuvenated Alcine survived some rough early rounds and came back strong enough to convince the ringside judges.
Many saw it as a draw, including judge Jack Woodburn who scored it 114-114. But judges Jean Lapointe and Claude Paquette both had it 116-112 for Alcine. The Canadian Press scored it 114-114.
”I didn’t see that he won the fight,” said a dejected Lemieux, who steamed through his first 25 opponents but now has lost two fights in a row. ”He won some of the later rounds.
”I felt I could have won, but there are things I didn’t do well. Maybe I didn’t manage my energy well. I’ll go back in the gym and regroup.”
The result begged for a rematch, which both fighters were open to, but Alcine cautioned that he was not keen to fight at the 160-pound middleweight limit and prefers the 154-pound division.
”It depends on how much (the promoters) put on the table,” Alcine said.
There was a little of everything in this fight, and the mostly pro-Lemieux Bell Centre crowd was roaring from the first round to the end of a 12-round thriller.
Alcine played rope-a-dope in the first but gave that up after he got clocked by some stiff shots.
Lemieux won most of the early rounds, during which Alcine uncharacteristically played the clown, thumping his chest after absorbing punches as a way to show they hadn’t hurt him, or winding up his right arm like a windmill before throwing some wild punches.
At one point, he waved for the crowd to make noise before throwing a shot.
”It’s all about confidence,” said Alcine. ”I wanted to let him know that if you can throw more, throw more. But in the end, when I caught him, I hurt him.”
From the seventh round on, the antics faded out and Alcine stuck to throwing punches and clinching. It helped him take the final three rounds and win the bout.
It was a huge win for Alcine, who was the star of the GYM promotions company when he won his title to become the first Haitian-born fighter with a world belt. He parted ways with GYM two years ago, but was back facing one of that company’s new hot prospects in Lemieux.
His new promoter is American Lou DiBella, although with the win the fight contract calls for GYM to co-promote his next three bouts.
”I think Joachim proved what he came here to prove – that he can be a world champion again,” said DiBella’s representative Ron Rizzo.
The question now is whether Lemieux has what it takes to win a world belt. He is a power puncher, but couldn’t take Alcine down.
Promoter Yvon Michel still believes he is championship material.
”There’s just a little lack of experience,” said Michel, who expects to have Lemieux back in the ring in February. ”It won’t make a big difference in our plans for him. We’ll take all the time we need and he will dominate his division one day.”
In the co-feature, power puncher Adonis Stevenson knocked down Aaron Pryor Jr. three times before he finished him in the ninth to unify three minor boxing titles.
Stevenson (16-1) kept his NABA super-middleweight belt and added those of the NABO and IBF Intercontinental as he dominated the six-foot-four son of former light welterweight great Aaron Pryor in a bout that was more like a street fight than a boxing match. Pryor Jr. dropped to 16-5.
After the bout, Stevenson took the ring microphone and called out undefeated IBF champion Lucian Bute of Montreal, who was in the crowd. That fight is not likely to happen with Bute slated next to take on the winner of the Super Six tournament on the U.S. Showtime channel between Carl Froch and Andre Ward.
Michel said the victory should put Stevenson into the top-5 rankings of most of the best sanctioning bodies and keep him on pace to fight for a world title by the end of next year.
The stocky Stevenson eschews technique to stalk his opponents and fire off his crushing left as often as possible.
He put his opponent down once in the first, twice in the third and nearly had him down again in the eighth before he ended with a straight left that dropped Pryor Jr. to his knees and caused his corner to throw in the towel 43 seconds into the ninth.
Eleider Alvarez (7-0), a Colombia native and 2007 Pan American Games gold medallist who is a top prospect in the GYM stable, scored an impressive first-round knockout of Emiliano Cayetano (21-4) of the Domincan Republic to claim the minor NABA light heavyweight title.
The quick-handed Alvarez had Cayetano down twice, then finished him late in the first with a straight right to the jaw.
The best bout of the undercard saw Red Deer, Alta., super-featherweight Arash Usmanee (16-0) trade bombs non-stop for 10 rounds with European champion Antonio Joao Bento (23-9-2) and emerge with a unanimous decision. Usmanee landed several big shots on his Portuguese opponent, who didn’t flinch and kept moving forward.
The local judges gave Usmanee the win by 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91, but while it was a clear victory it looked a much closer bout than that.
Portly, 39-year-old heavyweight Sandy Pembroke (1-4) of Kamloops, B.C., was pounded relentlessly for four rounds by 24-year-old Didier Bence (4-0) of Laval, Que., but stayed upright. A small victory in a one-sided defeat. Pembroke has still yet to visit the canvas in his career.
Featherweight Tyler Asselstine (8-0) of Ottawa had Frenchman Philippe Frenois (14-5-1) down once and swept all eight rounds.
And Kevin Lavallee (7-0-1) of Ste-Adele, Que., knocked down Ignac Kassai (5-18-2) en route to a four-round super-featherweight decision.
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