We had a double-header this week as we learned whom the top
eight fighters would be that move on to the semi-finals. But first Troy Ross
had to decide where to place his name for that second round, after giving his
Gold Team yet another victory. The last tier was empty, which meant he would
not know who his opponent would be. There was one other slot left, and that was
under Felix Cora, Jr.’s name. After much consideration, Ross chose to fight
Cora. When asked why he replied, “I might as well go with the best of the
best.” This fight will take place next week, and should be a really good one.
Gold Team trainer Tommy Brooks repeated what he has been
saying all along. “A trainer is only as good as his athlete is. If the fighter
doesn’t listen to the trainer, then nine times out of 10 you’re going to come
up on he losing end.” This was being said to the trainer of the Blue Team John
Bray, whose team had lost four fights in a row.
Bray pushes his fighters and explained why. He said that as
a fighter, he had, “opportunity after opportunity.” He felt that he blew it
every time and never lived up to his potential. He wants his fighters to take
advantage of this chance, and that is why he is hard on them.
Due to the Ross victory, the Gold Team once again had the
power of choice, made more important because of the fact there were two fights
to be made. Rico Hoye decided to call out Mike Alexander, leaving the young gun
Ryan Coyne to face the elder statesman, Tim Flamos.
The first fight of the evening was Hoye against Alexander.
At one time Rico had been rated number one in his weight division. He felt that
Mike could let him dust off the cobwebs and have a relatively easy fight. I’m
not sure if Hoye felt that way after the fight.
Alexander came to play, and it appeared that he won the
first two rounds. Whether Rico was taking him a bit for granted, I don’t know,
but Mike was not going away easily. Hoye came out a lot stronger in the third,
perhaps realizing that he better make something happen soon. He kept pressure
on for the last two rounds, but Alexander was able to answer back most of the
time.
But Hoye was not to be conquered on this night. From the
third round on he seemed much more confident, and continued to wear Mike down.
When it finally came to the judges’ scorecards, they scored the fight 49-46,
49-47, and 49-46, a unanimous decision, all for the winner, Rico Hoye. Hoye
moves into the semi-final round.
When I spoke with Mike later, I wanted his take on the
fight. “After the fight I thought I did enough. I thought it should have been a
draw, personally. I talked to a few people and they thought I won the fight,”
he told me. “I thought it was close, but after seeing it on TV it seemed to me
that I did enough to win the fight, too. I thought I won the first two, I lost
the third, and the fourth and fifth could have gone either way.”
I mentioned to Mike that I was really surprised at the
unanimous decision against him. “That really hurt my feelings, actually. Two of
the guys had a three-point difference, and I couldn’t believe that.”
Being on The Contender was kind of like a dream for
Alexander. Watching the show, he never thought he’d get the opportunity to
actually be a participant. “I wish there’d been a different outcome, but I met
some cool guys and it was a great experience.”
He also enjoyed Singapore. “That too was a great
opportunity. I would have never had a reason to visit Singapore, and it was a
beautiful country. They treated us nicely, the food was different, and it was a
nice experience.”
And speaking of food, Alexander likes to cook, and wants to
go to Culinary Arts School when he is finished boxing. “I’ve always liked to
cook. I’d research stuff like how much fat is in things, and how to eat
healthy, and it just caught my interest.”
But don’t look for him to plan any meals any time soon. As
of now it looks as if Mike will have another fight sometime in March. “I’m
going to try to learn from my mistakes and get in better shape. I was actually
shocked that I got tired like I did in that fight, and I never want that to
happen again.
“But you haven’t seen the last of me, and I’d just like to
thank the Contender people once again for giving me the opportunity, and good
luck to the guys fighting in the Championship.”
Congratulations to Rico Hoye, and thanks to Mike Alexander
for his time.
