By Keith Idec
Devon Alexander doesn’t harbor much bitterness about his dubious draw with Victor Ortiz.
The consensus among fans and media is that Alexander deserved a victory over Ortiz five months ago. That’s enough to make Alexander overlook that there’s a single draw on his record, rather than a 28th win.
“From the backlash from after the fight, I think that everybody knows that I won convincingly,” Alexander said during a conference call Tuesday to promote his upcoming fight against Andre Berto.
St. Louis’ Alexander appeared to out-point Ortiz, of Ventura, California, in their 12-round welterweight bout February 17 in El Paso, Texas.
Two judges, Glen Rick Crocker and Levi Martinez, still scored their fight even (114-114). Judge Don Griffin scored Alexander a 115-113 winner over Ortiz in a fight FOX televised from the University of Texas-El Paso’s Don Haskins Center.
“He had a lot of fans down there and I’m not making no excuse,” Alexander said. “I thought I won convincingly and, you know, that’s part of the game. I’m glad a lot of people got to see the fight and then they got to make their own conclusions from the fight. So I was happy about that. And after the fight, you saw the backlash. I’m just glad everybody got a chance to see it.”
Berto, who split a pair of fights against Ortiz, also feels Alexander beat Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs).
“The fight with Victor Ortiz, you know, they say it was a draw but, of course, a lot of people believe that [Alexander] pulled it out,” Berto said on the conference call. “I believe that he [deserved] the victory as well. You just can’t stay on such situations like that. Victor Ortiz is the type of guy that either he’s gonna be alive one night or the other night he’ll fall apart. You just never know which one you’re gonna get. And he’s a former world champion as well.”
Berto avenged his April 2011 loss to Ortiz six years later, when he knocked out Ortiz in the fourth round of their rematch. Ortiz overcame two knockdowns, dropped Berto twice and won their action-packed first fight by unanimous decision.
The 34-year-old Berto (31-5, 24 KOs), of Winter Haven, Florida, will end a 15½-month layoff when he squares off against Alexander (27-4-1, 14 KOs) on August 4 in Uniondale, New York.
FOX will televise Alexander-Berto as the main event of a doubleheader from Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT). In the opening bout, Brooklyn’s Peter Quillin (33-1-1, 23 KOs) is scheduled to battle Detroit’s J’Leon Love (24-1-1, 13 KOs) in a 10-round, super middleweight match.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
