Commentary| Former WBC and IBF Light Welterweight champion Devon Alexander boxed himself to a unanimous decision victory over tough and rugged slugger Jesus Soto Karass. Held at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on June 21, 2014, the schedule 10 round bout was the opening attraction on the Yoshihiro Kamegai vs. Robert Guerrero card. The entire fight card was aired on ‘Showtime Championship Boxing’. Alexander, who goes by the moniker ‘Alexander the Great’, outpointed Soto Karass with scorecards of 97-93, 99-91, and 99-91.
Favored by most to win the fight, Alexander looked strong in the fight’s opening rounds. Alexander used his vastly superior foot speed and movement on the plodding and slow footed Jesus Soto Karass early on in the fight. Fighting from his usual southpaw stance, Alexander also had success landing his overhead left hand on Soto Karass in the early going. Soto Karass was able to land some hard shots here and there on Alexander, however, Alexander pretty much controlled the fight in a dominating fashion till the middle rounds.
Alexander’s fast pace slowed down a bit in the 8th round, and this greatly benefited Soto Karass. The slower pace allowed Soto Karass to find openings for landing clean shots on Alexander. However, by the 10th round, Alexander caught a second wind, and the action began to pick back up. Both fighters went tit for tat trading punches in this round, and both seemed to be going for the knockout over the other. While clearly being ahead on points, Alexander likely wanted to close the show, while Soto Karass needed a knockout to win the fight.
Following the bout, Devon Alexander praised Jesus Soto Karass for his toughness in the ring. Alexander stated; “I wanted to shut him out, but he’s a tough, tough competitor.” Alexander improved his professional record to 26(14 KO’s)-2-0 with the victory. As for Jesus Soto Karass (28-10-3-1 18 KO’s), the loss marked his second straight loss and at age 31, one has to wonder how much longer he can sustain his career with his style of fighting.
Devon Alexander’s career had a slight setback when he lost the IBF Welterweight title to Shawn Porter in December of 2013. With his fairly dominating and much needed victory over Jesus Soto Karass, Alexander done enough to keep his name relevant in boxing. Alexander has two losses in his professional career, one to Porter, and the other to Timothy Bradley in 2011. Alexander has stated to various media outlets that he wants to rematch both fighters.
Shawn Porter is scheduled to fight Kell Brook later on in this year, so a rematch between Porter and Alexander could be a possibility. The irony of these three fighters is that Alexander was scheduled to fight Kell Brook back in 2013, but Brook sustained an injury that forced him to pull out of the fight. Regardless of the outcome of Brook vs. Porter, Alexander’s victory over Soto Karass will help keep him relevant, and may even be the stepping stone for Alexander getting a shot at either Brook or Porter.
