By Tyson Bruce
Undercard:
Montreal, Canada- the night got started with an interesting crossroads heavyweight fight between fading veteran Derrick Rossy (29-8, 14 Kos) scoring a decisive decision victory over former prospect Joe Hanks (21-2, 14 Kos), despite one judge bizarrely scoring it a draw. Rossy used an effective jab throughout the fight and countered Hanks’ lazier jab with solid overhand right counters. Rossy stunned Hanks in the seventh round with a right, which seemed to wake Hanks up. Hanks fought his best between round 8-10 but still came up short in most of the exchanges. Final scores read: 95-95, 97-93, 98-92.
Main Event:
The inept scoring continued in the main event. It appeared that Delvin Rodriguez easily outpointed former titleholder Joachim Alcine only to be settled with an improbable draw. The fight was utterly devoid of action but it was Rodriguez that appeared to control the tempo and flow of the bout. Alcine, whose legs looked very stiff, spent the fight mostly posturing instead of punching. Neither fighter was really assertive and action was very sparse. The final score cards were 97-93 Rodriguez, 96-94 Alcine, 95-95. It certainly looks like the end of the road for Alcine (35-7-2, 21 Kos) but the end might not be very far away for Rodriguez (28-7-4, 16 Kos) either. Remarkably, it was Rodriguez’s 17th appearance on ESPN. Could it be his last?
