Wright-Quillin, Tarver-Kayode on 6/2 at the Home Depot Center; Devon Alexander signs with Haymon

By Boxing News - 04/11/2012 - Comments

Image: Wright-Quillin, Tarver-Kayode on 6/2 at the Home Depot Center; Devon Alexander signs with HaymonBy Allan Fox: The June 2nd card headlined by International Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Antonio Tarver 29-6, 20 KO’s) facing unbeaten contender Lateef Kayode (18-0, 14 KO’s) in a Showtime televised card at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California.

In the co-main event, undefeated middleweight contender Peter Quillin (26-0, 20 KO’s) will be taking on former junior middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO’s) in a 10 round bout.

Quillin, 28, has good power but he’s still never faced anyone that you could consider a really good fighter. He’s beaten Craig McEwan, Jason Lehouillier and Jesse Brinkley in his last three fights, but he’s looked flawed in each. The positive for Quillin is he’s got good power, but the negative is he doesn’t throw combination, has no left hand and can’t fight on the inside.

Wright hasn’t fought in three years and looked horrible in his last fight against Paul Williams in losing a 12 round decision. Quillin probably can’t do the things that Williams did in beating Wright because he’s more of a pot shot fighter in the Jermain Taylor mode. However, Wright might be old enough for Quillin to beat him.

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The Tarver vs. Kayode fight will be interesting to see how good the 29-year-old Freddie Roach trained Kayode, #2 WBA, #5 WBO, #11 IBF, really is as a fighter. Kayode has looked good against guys like Felix Cora Jr., Matt Godfrey, Nicolas Uannuzzi and Epifanio Mendoza. However, there’s a big difference in facing these fighters than someone like 43-year-old Tarver.

To be sure, Tarver is getting up there in age, but he’s so highly skilled and he’s facing a mostly limited slugger in Kayode. Tarver has to be considered the favorite in this fight because of Kayode’s limited experience and skills. Kayode has a puncher’s chance at winning this fight but that’s about it.

Tarver does remarkably well against fighters that come looking to slug it out with him instead of boxing. The guys that Tarver has problems with are speedy fighters like Chad Dawson, who use their boxing skills to beat him rather than brute strength. Tarver lost twice to Dawson and once to Bernard Hopkins in the past six years.

In his last fight, Tarver defeated IBO cruiserweight champion Danny Green by a 9th round stoppage last year in July. That was a long time ago, but Tarver likely hasn’t slipped much since that fight. Green is another Kayode type slugger that looks to take fighters heads off, but Tarver was able to easily out-box him and then take him out.

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Devon Alexander signs with Al Haymon

Adviser Al Haymon has reportedly signed with former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (23-1, 13 KO’s) to help guide his career at welterweight. Haymon works with a number of big named fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Adrien Broner, Andre Berto and many others. It can’t hurt Alexander to have Haymon as an adviser and hopefully opening the doors for Alexander at HBO to get some big fights. In the near future. Alexander badly needs a title fight against one of he big names like Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. I can’t see him getting a fight against Pacquiao, but Mayweather Jr. is an option.



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