By Erik Schmidt: Once beaten cruiserweight contender Alexander Alexeev (17-1, 15 KOs) defeated American Max Alexander (14-4-2, 2 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Halle 7, in Bremen, Germany. Alexeev, 28, making his first appearance since being stopped in the 9th round by Argentinean Victor Emilio Ramirez on January 17th for the interim World Boxing Organization cruiserweight title, dominated Alexander through 10 mostly one-sided rounds. The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 97-93.
Alexeev, a former 2004 Olympian for Russia, fought well, but like in his loss to Ramirez in January, seemed to run out of gas early and battled with fatigue from the 4th round on against Alexander. Alexeev threw few combinations in the bout and seemed to be pacing himself from the earliest part of the fight.
Due to Alexeev’s conservative fight, he gave the German crowd very few opportunities to cheer in the fight because of Alexeev’s low punch output. There were no knockdowns in the fight by either fighter. Alexeev’s right eye started swelling in the 4th and got steadily worse as the rounds went by despite Alexander seldom landing any meaningful punches in the fight.
Alexeev controlled the 1st round, using his lab and left hooks to the body. Alexander had a strange smile on his face, and wore it for the entire 10-rounds no matter what the circumstances were at the time. Alexeev landed when and where he pleased, but he put very little power in his punches and threw mostly one punch at a time.
Compared to how Alexeev previously used to fight before losing to Ramirez in January, Alexeev seemed like a much different fighter. His offense appears to have been turned down a couple of notches, with a lot less combinations and much less power being put on Alexeev’s shots.
In the 2nd round, Alexeev did little other jabbing over and over again, following Alexander around the ring and looking for openings. Alexander landed a few jabs of his own and one right hand, but was more focused on trying to pick off Alexeev’s punches.
The 3rd and 4th rounds were totally one-sided, largely because Alexander just seemed not interested in punching back at Alexeev. Instead of taking advantage of the situation, Alexeev continued to jab and rarely throw a right hand. Near the end of the round, Alexander landed several decent right hands that swelled up Alexeev’s right eye.
Although Alexeev landed many more punches in the round, Alexander’s were the more meaningful punches by far and possibly enough to win the round. It seemed as if Alexeev’s conservative offensive approach was putting him in danger of losing rounds.
Alexeev moved continuously in rounds five and six, trying to prevent being a stationary target for Alexander’s bigger shots. Alexeev had success with his jab, but he was sweating like a pig by this time and looking as if he was in the 15th round rather than just the 5th and 6th.
Alexeev opened up briefly with some power shots late in the round, hitting Alexander with some big left hands. The crowd enjoyed it and gave Alexeev a lot of applause. Unfortunately, Alexeev went back to his conservative offense in the next round, throwing mostly jabs and one punch at a time.
In rounds eight and nine, Alexeev looked tired and had almost nothing on his shots in the rare attempts at throwing some power shots. Like in the other rounds, Alexeev threw mostly jabs and moved around the ring. Alexeev’s right eye began to look really bad by this time, turning purple. Alexander landed some nice right uppercuts late in the round.
In the 10th round, Alexeev briefly tried to step up the action but quickly went back into his conservative jabbing when he was met with a little resistance from Alexander. The rest of the round saw Alexeev moving, jabbing and throwing an occasional pot shot.
I can’t say that this was a good win for Alexeev. It seemed to show in dramatic terms exactly why he was beaten by Ramirez in January. Alexeev has poor stamina and still seems to be more of a 4-round fighter than a 10 or 12 round. Against the limited opposition that Alexeev faced before fighting Ramirez, Alexeev was able to get away with having poor stamina because he was able to knock out most of his opponents by the 4th or 5th round at the latest.
However, now that Alexeev is facing better fighters, he’s being forced to go beyond five rounds and he doesn’t look up to it. Hopefully for his sake he can increase his stamina at some point, because if he can’t he’ll continue to have serious problems when put in with good opponents like Ramirez.