By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated cruiserweight contender Alexander Alexeev (14-0, 13 KOs) takes on former cruiserweight title challenger Louis Azille (19-5-2, 15 KOs) in a 10-round bout on Saturday, in Burg-Waechter Castello, Dusseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Alexeev, 27, a former amateur star from the former Soviet Union, who came in 2nd in the 2003 World championship and 2nd in the 2004 Athen’s Olympics losing narrowly on both occasions to Odlanier Solis, and then winning the 2005 World Championships.
Alexeev now lives and trains in Hamburg, Germany, and is trained by Fritz Sdunek, the former trainer for Wladimir Klitschko. Ranked #4 in the WBO, #9 in the WBA, #13 in the WBC, and #14 in the IBF, Alexeev has moved up quickly despite still being at the early stages of his career. This is, no doubt, because of how impressive Alexeev has looked in his fights, stopping 13 of his 14 opponents inside the distance. His opposition thus far has been pretty soft, with his best win coming recently with a 3rd round stoppage of veteran Talmadge Griffis February 2008.
In that fight, Alexeev made easy work of Griffis, dropping him twice in the first, and hurting him badly with left hands in the 2nd. The fight was stopped after the 2nd round because of a cut above the fight eye of Griffis, but there was little doubt that Alexeev would have stopped him in the next round, if his team had sent him out for another round.
At this point, Alexeev, though still hardly known by most fans, may be the top cruiserweight in the division now that David Haye has moved up to the heavyweight division. Even if he had stayed, I would give Alexeev an excellent chance at beating him. The thing of it is, Alexeev is hard to hit, moving constantly, using his jab and ducking shots. He doesn’t try to overpower his opponents like, say, Enzo Maccarinelli, choosing instead to box, and look for spots in which to unload his left hand. He fights with intelligence always, moves well around the ring, and can fight exceptionally well going backwards, as well as when his back is against the ropes.
He tends to throw a lot of body shots, mostly hooks, but quickly moves up stairs when his opponents began covering up their midsections. Much of the time, Alexeev makes it look easy, as he fights very relaxed appearing not to be even trying that hard. However, when he lands his shots, he often has his opponents in trouble, especially when he lands his hard left hook to the head. In his fight with American Darrin Humphrey, in September 2007, Alexeev dropped him three times in the fight before the fight was stopped in the 4th round.
Using left hooks and uppercuts mostly, Alexeev had Humphrey in trouble in the 1st round, dropping him with a big left hand. Though Humphrey made it up and survived the round, his face was beet red by the end of the round from Alexeev’s many punishing shots. For the remainder of the fight, Alexeev toyed with Humphey, hitting him at will and knocking him down twice more before the fight was eventually stopped in the 4th round.
Azille, 37, saw his best action seven years ago when he, at that time undefeated at 16-0, was stopped in the 3rd round by Wayne Braithwaite in a WBC cruiserweight title eliminator in November 2001. Things, unfortunately, have gone pretty much downhill for Azille since that time, with him losing four out of his last seven fights since then. His most recent loss in March 2008, a 12-round unanimous decision to Anders Huggers, seems to suggest that he’s well past his prime.
However, against Francisco Palacios in August 2007, Azille looked good for much of the fight, giving Palacios a lot of problems before suddenly getting knocked out by him in the 7th round. Azille does still have a lot of power, which if he land one of his big right hand shots, he might be able to get lucky and stop Alexeev. It’s not likely though. Look for Alexeev to take him out by the 5th or 6th round.