Welterweight Devon Alexander (10-0, 5 KOs), who fights under trainer Kevin Cunningham along with junior middleweight belt holder Cory Spinks, battered Maximino Cuevas (9-5) before stopping him in the fourth round.
Alexander, a 19-year-old fighter with power in both fists, opened a cut over Cuevas’ left eye in the fourth round and was dominating him when the referee stopped the fight.
Guillermo Jones (34-3-2, 27 KOs) of Panama, joined Cunningham’s stable, gained 50 pounds to move up to heavyweight and won impressively in his heavyweight debut.
He knocked out a pathetic Jeremy Bates (21-13-1) in the first round. Jones, a top cruiserweight contender for several years, was supposed to fight for a vacant belt in July in St. Louis on the same card that saw Spinks win a decision over Roman Karmazin. He was forced to withdraw because of illness.
Spinks had been scheduled to fight on the Hollywood, Fla., card and repeated attempts by the American to find out what happened have gone unanswered by Don King Productions.
However, his next opponent could have been on the card.
Travis Simms, who did not fight for more than two years, broke Jose Antonio Rivera’s nose in the second round and beat him unmercifully for most of nine rounds before the ref stopped the fight. He regained his junior middleweight title.
“I’m looking to get in the mix with the top fighters in the division. Cory Spinks or Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather. I don’t care. It’s my first fight back in 2½ years. I got my ring rust off. The next time I will be even more impressive,” Simms told espn.com.