Devon Alexander vs. Walter Castillo this Tues. on FS1

Boxingnews24.com

By Jim Dower: Former 2 division world champion Devon Alexander (26-4, 14 KOs) will be making a comeback this Tuesday on November 21 in a 10 round scheduled fight against 29-year-old Walter Castillo (26-4-1, 19 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 from the Coliseum in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

This is a fairly tough opponent for Alexander to be taking after being out of the ring for a long time. Castillo has some power in his punches, and he’s not normally the type of guy you want to fight coming off of long spell outside of the ring.

Alexander, 30, will be trying to revive his stalled career after 2 years out of action. Alexander last fought in a losing effort against Aaron Martinez on October 14, 2015. Alexander lost a 10 round unanimous decision in that fight. That should have been someone that Alexander could beat if he had anything left in the tank as a 11-year veteran of the sport. Martinez was recently soundly beaten by Sammy Vasquez. If there were the only loss for Alexander in the last few years of his career, it would be worrisome, but unfortunately it’s not. Alexander was easily beaten by Amir Khan in his fight before that in losing a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 119-109, 118-110 and 120-108.

The big question is does Alexander still have it at age 30? He didn’t look like a physically shot fighter against Aaron Martinez and Amir Khan. Alexander looked more like someone who had lost his self-confidence. His loss to Shawn Porter seemed to take much of the confidence out of Alexander. Since that fight, Alexander hasn’t had the same look to him. Alexander probably should have moved back down to 140 after losing to Porter, because he never had the size or the power to dominate at the 147 lb. division the way he did at 140.

It’s unclear what weight Alexander and Castillo will be meeting at this Tuesday. Hopefully for Alexander’s sake, he’ll be fighting at 140, because that’s where he belongs. He doesn’t have the size to be competing against guys like Keith Thurman and Errol Spence Jr.

Alexander hasn’t won a fight since beating journeyman Jesus Soto Karass by a 10 round unanimous decision in June 2014. That was a good performance from Alexander, albeit against a guy with no defense that was there to be hit.

Alexander’s career hasn’t looked the same ever since he lost a 12 round unanimous decision to Shawn Porter on December 7, 2013. Porter used his size and pressure to force the weaker Alexander up against the ropes, where he worked him over for 12 rounds. It was the same kind of beat down that Porter inflicted on Paulie Malignaggi in their fight in April 2014. The only difference was that Alexander was able to take the punishment from Porter for 12 rounds rather than wilting in 4 rounds the way that Malignaggi did.

Before Alexander’s career tanked, he had some good wins over the likes of Andriy Kotelnik, Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana, Randall Bailey, Junior Witter and Juan Urango. The wins for Alexander over Matthysse and Maidana were impressive ones. No one had been beating those guys. Alexander was knocked down by Matthysse in the 4th round of their fight in 2011, but he got up and was able to out-box him the rest of the way. Alexander lost to a prime Timothy Bradley by a 10th round technical decision in January 2011 after being accidently head-butted. That was still a close fight, but Alexander was hurt after Bradley rammed heads with him.

If Alexander can beat Castillo and look good in doing so, he could see his career rejuvenated if he fights in the 140 lb. weight class. It’s going to be tough though, given how discouraged Alexander looked in his last 2 fights against Amir Khan and Aaron Martinez. He had the look of someone that had given up on himself.