Devon Alexander – Diego Chaves purse bid on July 2nd

By Boxing News - 06/28/2015 - Comments

chaves444By Dan Ambrose: A purse bid is scheduled this Thursday [July 2nd] for an IBF eliminator bout between Diego Chaves (23-2-1, 19 KOs) and Devon Alexander (26-3, 14 KOs) at the International Boxing Federation headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey, according to Dan Rafael.

The Chaves-Alexander winner will become the IBF 147lb mandatory challenger to champion Kell Brook. However, it’s unclear whether the two fighters will even face each other because Chaves is promoted by Top Rank, and Alexander has Al Haymon as his adviser. The two generally don’t work together.

It would be a good fight if it takes place. Chaves, #6 IBF, is coming off of a 12 round draw with Tim Bradley in his last fight in December of last year in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most boxing fans felt that Chaves should have lost the fight, but it was still a close affair. Chaves did a much better job against Bradley than Jessie Vagas did in losing to him by a 12 round decision last Saturday night.

Before the Bradley fight, Chaves was involved in a strange fight against Brandon Rios last year in August. Chaves was ahead on the cards going into the 9th round and looked to be on his way to getting a victory when the referee Vic Drakulich suddenly stopped the fight, saying that Chaves has thrown an intentional elbow. In reviewing the fight there wasn’t an elbow thrown by Chaves.

Rios lucked out with Drakulich’s strange stoppage because there was only one more round in the fight, and the chances were high that Rios would have lost. He was certainly behind on the scorecards at the time that Drakulich stopped the bout. Drakulich also took two points away from Chaves in the fight for holding in the 3rd and head-butting in the 8th.

Chaves had only held a handful of times in the 3rd when Drakulich suddenly stopped the action and took point away from him. It seemed senseless. In the 8th, Drakulich took a point away from Chaves for head-butting. However, it was Rios who was lowering his head and sticking into the face of Chaves when he would clinch. Instead of Rios being docked points, it was Chaves who lost a point for head-butting.

#8 Alexander has lost two out of his last three fights since 2013 in defeats against Amir Khan and Shawn Porter. In between those losses, Alexander beat Jesus Soto Karass. Alexander is still a very good fighter. He’s just not in the same class as Khan and Porter.



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