One-Handed Devon Alexander Beats on Purdy For Six Rounds, Calls Out Floyd
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Correspondent
Atlantic City, NJ (May 20th, 2013)– Despite fighting with only his right hand at boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Saturday, May 18, 2013, International Boxing Federation Welterweight southpaw champion Devon ‘The Great’ Alexander fulfilled his mandatory defense obligation with a six round torture of challenger Lee Purdy, a late substitute for Kell Brook, who failed to make weight by 3/4 of a pound and forfeited part of his purse. Purdy, who is not yet on the world class level, wound up in a nontitle fight situation, and despite a decent upraised gloves defense, got tortured by six rounds of getting hit by solid straight power shots to the head and body through his defense.
Peterson, now 25-1, 14 knockouts, Saint Louis, Missouri, was an inch taller than ‘Lights Out’ Purdy, now 20-4-1, 13 knockouts, and who is lucky his lights were not taken out after having his clock cleaned.
Purdy landed a few decent counters in round five, but failed to win a round. He was getting beaten for six rounds by a one-handed fighter, and just had no punches to answer Alexander, who hurt the left hand in the first round, but still had enough left to walk Purdy down into the ropes, and land an accumulation of shots to wear Purdy down. Alexander was classy enough to defeat to defeat the heart and spirit of Purdy, who hung tough but was destined not to win a single round. This made Darren Barker’s decision to save Purdy for another day a wise one, as experts might have questioned letting this bout run for the sake of hanging in there, and risking real damage to Purdy, who fortunately was not hurt physically, only emotionally.
Purdy, after the bout, stated, “This was something (this fight opportunity) I couldn’t turn down. I just couldn’t get in my groove tonight. I was disgusted (with corner man Darren Barker’s decision to stop the bout). I respect my corner’s decision.”
According to Purdy’s best friend and trainer Darren Barker, who made the decision to stop the lopsided bout, “Lee is a young man. He still has a great future ahead. He was in there with a great champion. He done us so proud.”
Devon Alexander summed up the bout with his view of Purdy: “He’s hungry. He came to fight. I expected that. I hurt my left hand hitting him on top of the head in the first round. If my team wants to fight Khan, we’ll fight Khan. If my team wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., it’ll be Mayweather. Lee Purdy did an excellent job, he came to fight. he came to fight. I knew he was tough. I like his spirit.”
If one lesson is to be learned from Alexander versus Purdy, the lesson is, late substitute or not, you have to be able to make the weight. To struggle to make the weight is worse than trying to make the weight, getting exhausted and then trying to fight. Perhaps the outcome gave credibility to some fighters more recently who have forfeiting title opportunities and fought on for the win or loss, just not opting to lose a pound or two and risk being physically drained. Three recent examples of fighters who opted not to loss the weight in similar world title scenarios are light welterweight Lamont Peterson, welterweight Pablo Cesar Cano and Middleweight Osumanu Adama. Peterson got stopped in three rounds by Lucas Martin Matthysse after getting knocked down three times at Boardwalk Hall in the main event at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City which followed Alexander versus Purdy on May 18, 2013. Peterson got knocked down three times and got stopped in the third round. Cano lost a 12 round split decision to Paul Malignaggi in October 2012 at Barclays Center. Adama won a ten round split decision over Grady Brewer in Massachusetts in March 2013.
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