Cloud/Mack: Cloud did not impress me last night. He seemed to have a hard time cutting the ring off effectively. I wasn't impressed by his footwork. And again he seems to think its a crime to set up an attack with the left jab. He was also very easily hit when Mack let his lands go. So overall there is a clear picture being painted that this man can be easily outboxed and has rudimentary skills. His boxing skills are very very basic at the moment and again his power was shown to be nothing special. No greater than Librado Andrade it seems so that won't get him out of jail. This guy would not beat Nathan Cleverly. Cleverly would be too fast for him, would pepper his ass from every conceivable angle because he's quicker on his feet and he wouldn't have the power to get out of jail. Mack did a pretty good job frustrating him and showed good ability at times but again found a way to lose. Tires too badly to be anything other than a gatekeeper, thats his problem. As a side note there was a comical moment in this fight where Mack's corner were giving him technical advice, then it panned round to Cloud's corner and they told him 'Get dis mu'****er outta there'. Which he duly obliged. But it did kind of highlight the lack of thought that seems to be prevailing in the Cloud camp, and thats showing in his lack of improvement as a pressure fighter. He needs more strings to his bow than this. Alexander/Matthyse: Well well well, what have we here. I'm gonna come straight out with this, I don't know what the consensus is since I havn't been on here, but I thought Matthyse was well and truly shafted in this one. Alexander was poor. All bark no substance once more. Someone needs to let this kid know that decibels are not a substitute for clean effective punching. He isn't sitting down on anything. He flicks out a jab with no commitment. He's always punching off his back foot and his feet are too wide apart to be elusive. He also tired badly once again and was getting mullered as this fight progressed. Round 7 he got absolutely tattoo'd by the man with the tattoos. I didn't think he did enough of note in this fight to win the rounds he needed keeping in mind he got knocked down by a flush right hand. Matthyse was excellent on the other hand. I'm not sure how Argentina are forging their junior welters but he's very much in the Maidana mould. Looks the same, fights more or less the same and has the same attitude and demeanor in the ring where he doesn't care whats coming back nor does he care if his techniques perfect. He was digging in tremendous body shots all night, was landing all the clean hard blows in the fight, knocked his man down, and still got Dick Turpin'd on the cards. Horror show. Stick a fork in Alexander, I hope to see Matthyse in meaningful fights rather than Alexander but thats not going to happen of course. Matthyse/Maidana anyone?
Yeah i agree after watching Clouds fight, Cleverlys workrate and inside game will bust Clouds face up bigtime. Alexander should hang his gloves up, ha ha i was thinking while i watched his fight" You think that noise is gonna score points?"
I wish Alexander put half as much into his punching as he did his barking. His substance was genuinely awful. His jab was falling short constantly, Matthyse didn't even have to slip. Alexander was doing the work for him. He landed power shots but again he had his weight on his back leg so they did nothing for him and didn't budge Matthyse at all. 96-93...you have to laugh or you'd cry. In a 10 rounder that was a total robbery considering the knockdown and the way the fight played out. How the **** could Devon win more than 5 rounds in that nevermind 96-93. Matthyse landed everything of note in the fight. Feel sorry for the guy, I really do. He just can't get his break out moment.
Matthyse was whipping that long right to the body beautifully. It was thudding in and took the air right out of Alexander's lungs even in a 10 rounder. He's not as hard of a puncher as Maidana but he may be more accurate. He tattoo'd Alexander pretty badly in this fight, round 7 especially. The stats read 22-2 at one point in that round.
He did do better than Bradley. Thats probably due to the fact that Bradley is worried about his form and getting hit. Whereas Matthyse really does not give a damn whether he's looking polished. That makes a difference against a guy like Alexander who has a negative posture. He's on his back leg all the time and holding, trying to keep away.