By Stanley White: Coming off of a long 2-year layoff, former 2-division world champion Devon Alexander (27-4, 14 KOs) showed flashes of his former self in defeating Walter Castillo (26-5-1, 19 KOs) by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision on Tuesday night on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 from the Coliseum in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
The judges scored the fight 100-89, 100-89, and 96-93. Boxing News 24 had the 30-year-old Alexander winning by a 100-89 score. Late in round 2, Alexander dropped Castillo with a 4-punch combination to the head. Had the knockdown occurred earlier in the round, Alexander very likely would have finished the job. The 29-year-old Castillo was hurt as the round ended. Alexander wasn’t able to throw any additional sustained combinations like that; otherwise he would have had a good chance of stopping Castillo.
Castillo seemed to get warmed up fought better in rounds 3, 4 and 6. He still wasn’t doing enough to get the better of Alexander.
In round 6, Castillo landed a straight right to the head of Alexander that woke him up. Alexander put his foot down on the accelerator and continued to punish Castillo like he’d done earlier in the fight.
In the later rounds of the fight, Alexander and Castillo did a lot of talking back and forth. Castillo wanted Alexander to slug with him more, and he was more than willing to oblige.
Castillo started out fast in round 10, landing some good body shots and right hands. Castillo was able to get Alexander to stand and trade more, which made his job easier his shots. However, Alexander poured it on in the last minute of the round and landed some big punches to finish the fight strong.
The lack of hand speed hindered Castillo’s efforts in the fight. Alexander beat Castillo to the punch most of the fight, and was able to get out of the way of his slow, hooks and right hands.
After the fight, Alexander said he’s interested in soon facing IBF welterweight Errol Spence Jr. and WBA/WBC champion Keith “One Time” Thurman. Alexander needs to obviously get more fights under his belt before he fights for a world title against Thurman or Spence. Those fighters are at the top of their game right now, and Alexander would likely be too rusty for him to have any chance of beating them.
The win for Alexander snaps a 2-fight losing streak. He came into the fight having lost 3 out of his last 4 fights, and he looked pretty well shot. It was a good win tonight, but we still don’t know whether Alexander is back or note. Castillo didn’t have the talent to really test Alexander the way some of the other fighters in the welterweight division would. Alexander might have problems if he gets put inside the ring with a top contender in the division like Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia. Alexander was easily beaten by Amir Khan 3 years ago.
The defeat for Castillo is his second straight. He lost his previous fight to Sergey Lipinets by a 7th round knockout last year in July.