Thirty minutes after numbers were crunched and the announcement of a unanimous verdict in the main event rang through the rafters of Scottrade Center on Saturday, there were rumblings underneath in the venue’s tunnels.
A half-hour after Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Evander Holyfield had been whisked away from their A-list ringside perches and local celebrities had departed to get afterparties started, there was turbulence in a passageway leading to the dressing room of challenger Andriy Kotelnik.
An assortment of angry men’s voices speaking in Russian, presumably venting about all three judges’ 116-112 scores in favor of the title defendant Devon Alexander, could be heard seeping through concrete walls into the hallway and out beyond a security guard’s checkpoint.
Earlier in the hour, a tough-as-nails and determined fighter from Lviv, Ukraine had proven his mettle by taking the 140-pound champ Alexander the distance with a relentless attack and an awkward style that made him hard to find.
The crowd had been itching for a stoppage, but styles make fights, as they say, and in this case a show-closing exclamation point by St. Louis’ son in his HBO showcase wasn’t to be.
Given the chance, this is what I’d say to the impressive Kotelnik and his team: hanging with the champ for a dozen rounds isn’t the same as ripping his belt away from him.
Even though Alexander had a ton of pressure on his shoulders, he fought through adversity in the form of a cut incurred in round five and used spectacular footwork and busy hands to dictate the action and land more clean, effective punches.
“The Great” was clearly in control from the opening bell and used angles and swift upper body movement to build an early lead in the bank. Even though he was pressed in the middle rounds, including a breathless 10th, he executed the game plan drawn up by trainer Kevin Cunningham and won the fight.
It doesn’t matter if you win the Superbowl by one touchdown or four, the Lombardi trophy they hand you is the same.
In his post-fight interview, a smiling Alexander was tough on himself as he summed up his performance, but as a young champion on the rise, the experience learned from a stern test like the one he’d just passed will serve him well in the future.
