By John G. Thompson: Marco Antonio Rubio (50-5-1, 43 KO’s) earned himself a shot at a middleweight title in a shocking stoppage of previously undefeated Montreal native David Lemieux (25-1, 24 KO’s) at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec, Canada live on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights series. It was a night of upsets as unheralded Dyah Davis handed Marcus Johnson his first loss on Showtime this evening as well. In the undercard of the event in Montreal, Adonis Stevenson made a serious comeback statement against a fighter also coming off his first defeat.
Lemieux had stopped all but one of his opponents, with twenty-one stoppages in the first two rounds. All of his professional fights have taken place in Quebec. Rubio has traveled more extensively. His last loss was to Kelly Pavlik in 2009, and he has won six straight since then, five by stoppage. Rubio has been stopped three times in his career.
Lemieux paced himself at first, until half way through the round when he caught Rubio with an explosive looping right. Lemieux proceeded to swarm all over Rubio, backing him into the ropes, throwing nothing but haymakers. In the second Lemieux was still aggressive but more measured. Rubio had a bit of a better round in the third, landing some punches early on and blocking well late in the round. Rounds four and five were all Lemieux, and he looked as if he was on his way to pitching a shutout on the scorecards or possibly earning a late stoppage. Then in the sixth, Rubio connected with a right which hurt Lemieux. Rubio continued to press the action for the remainder of the round.
Lemieux tried to take back the fight in the seventh, pressing the action, but not connecting with anything clean. Then Rubio connected with another hard right and Lemieux went into the corner of the ring with only the ropes holding him up. The referee gave him a count and Lemieux continued, though he was clearly hurt. He tried to survive until the end of the round, but Rubio came forward pressing him back to the ropes and landing headshots with both hands. As Rubio pounded Lemieux backed into his own corner, Lemieux’s corner man Russ Anber waved to referee Marlon Wright to stop the bout. This was a spectacular win for Rubio, who had said if he could make it through the early rounds he would come away with the win.
Adonis “Superman” Stevenson (14-1, 11 KO’s) was born in Haiti, but now resides in Quebec. His sole loss came in his last fight, an inexplicable second round loss to a fighter with the record of 16-15-2. This was Stevenson’s only fight outside of Canada, and occurred almost a year ago, on April 16, 2010. Derek “The Black Lion” Edwards (25-2, 13 KO’s) of North Carolina also lost for the first time in his professional career in his last fight, a ten round unanimous decision. However, Edwards lost to much stiffer competition in then undefeated Marcus Johnson. And coincidentally, this fight also occurred almost a year ago, on April 30, 2010.
After an uneventful first round, the southpaw Stevenson came out more aggressively in the second, catching Edwards with a straight left to the chin, sending Edwards to the canvas. Edwards got up, but just ten seconds or so after the action continued, Stevenson landed another hard straight left to the nose and Edwards went down in a corner. As Edwards got up, blood started pouring out of his nose. The ringside doctor took a good look at Edwards’ nose in the beginning of the third, but the action was allowed to continue. Stevenson knew what his money punch was, and landed several more straight lefts forcing Edwards to hold. A moment after they separated, Stevenson threw a classic one-two combination with the right jab followed by the straight left, which Edwards did not see coming until it was too late. He went down in spectacular fashion and the referee waved off the fight.
In another televised undercard, Elieder Alvarez (4-0, 3 KO’s) from Colombia got a birthday present in the form of Ernesto Zamora (10-19-1, 5 KO’s) from Mexico; a fighter who has been knocked out in seven of his last eleven fights. Ringside commentators Teddy Atlas and Joe Tessitore justifiably questioned the local boxing commission’s decision to put someone like Zamora in the ring against Alvarez, a former Olympian and highly experienced amateur.
The only thing going for Zamora was that Alvarez was coming off a year and a half layoff and it showed at first. Then in the third round Alvarez landed a jab, then another jab which he followed up with a right-left-right combination and Zamora went down. Getting up at eight, Alvarez backed Zamora into the ropes with a hard right and sent him down again with a sledgehammer of a right as Zamora’s head was low. Zamora got up quickly, but Alvarez smelled the blood in the water. He landed a devastating left hook-overhand right combination and turned to walk away as if Zamora had been knocked down. Realizing that Zamora was still standing, Alvarez came at him with a series of hooks knocking him down for a third time and ending the fight.