By Jim Dower: Light middleweight fringe contender Eromosele Albert (22-2-1, 10 KOs) defeated journeyman Germaine Sanders (27-7, 17 KOs) by a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Mallory Square, in Key West, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 100-90 and 100-90. The fight was hardly interesting to watch, because not only was it totally one-sided with Albert easily winning, but it also displeasing to watch due to the constant movement of Sanders, who looked as if he had come with survivable as his number one goal in the fight.
Sanders, 38, moved constantly in the 1st round, shooting out his jab and moving around the ring laterally. He rarely stopped moving but when he would, he’d land a few shots and then get moving again. Sanders had even less power than Albert, almost guaranteeing that this fight would be a tactical battle with each fighter pecking away at each other with punches.
Albert calmly pursued Sanders around the ring, jabbing him and hitting him with combinations when he could catch up to him. Sanders tried slowing Albert down with clinching, but Albert pounded him with his free hand in the clinch, making Sanders not want to clinch that often.
Sanders slowed down his movement in the 2nd round, stopping to catch his breath and having to fight it out with Albert during those times. Sanders landed several good right hands in the last minute of the round, but it had no effect in stopping Albert from his attack. He took the shots and continue pressing forward, raining shots down on Sanders and looking like a smaller version of Glen Johnson.
In the 3rd and 4th rounds, Albert controlled the action, switching between jabbing and landing power shots. Sanders, for his part, was predictable, choosing to move and jab in circles. In the 4th, Albert appeared to hurt Sanders with a big right hand that knocked him backwards. However, he was unable to follow up with anything big enough to put Sanders down.
In the 5th and 6th rounds, Sanders stayed on the move, steering clear of mixing it up with Albert as much as possible. From the safety of the outside, Sanders was able to jab without getting hit too often by Albert. However, Albert caught up to him just enough to win both of the rounds, neither of which were entertaining in the least bit.
In the 7th and 8th rounds, Sanders continued with his moving around the ring, sometimes stopping to throw a few token punches, before moving once again. Albert again seemed to hurt Sanders, this time with a combination to the head early on. Sanders quickly moved away before Albert could add to it.
In the 9th and 10th rounds, Albert chased after Sanders, who was moving now more than ever and doing little in terms of trying to fight Albert. The crowd was either being kind or not really attentive to the fight, because strangely enough, there were no boos during this time. There should have been.
Perhaps on paper the fight might have been an appealing one, but in reality it was much less so, since Sanders a last minute replacement with only five days notice, seemed not prepared to mix it up for 10 long rounds with Albert. That’s not to say that Albert is any kind of knockout artist, but he does bring it, making his opponents fight hard to avoid getting beaten up with his nearly nonstop punching.