Joachim Alcine vs Delvin Rodriguez preview May 16
This Friday night May 16 features a pretty good matchup from Montreal, Canada when Joachim Alcine takes on Delvin Rodriguez at the Olympic Stadium. The 10-round junior middleweight bout can be seen live across the U.S. on the ESPN 2 network while fans in Canada can catch it on a delayed basis on TSN 2 at 1 am the next morning.
The 38-year-old Alcine, who was born in Haiti, is a former WBA world champion who has drifted out of the rankings over the past couple of years. He used to be as popular as Lucian Bute and Jean Pascal at one time in his adopted home city of Montreal. However, things have gone slightly south for him lately figuratively and literally as he now fights out of Southern California. Bute and Pascal are still around, but Adonis Stevenson is now the king of the ring in Montreal.
Alcine will enter the bout with a record of 35-7-1 along with 21 Kos while the 34-year-old Rodriguez, a former world title challenger who was born in the Dominican Republic, will enter the ting with a similar type of record at 28-7-3 with 16 Kos to his name. Both of them have some decent boxing skills and enough power to do some damage, but they’re also on the downside of their careers. A win here could put one of them back in the spotlight again though.
Alcine will have the Montreal crowd behind him and his last big win took place there when he beat world ranked David Lemieux back in 2011 by majority decision. However, things really turned sour for Alcine after that as he lost five straight fights. He decided to change management and has now reeled off two consecutive wins, both third-round stoppages, but both against Grade C fighters. He has also been reunited with his former trainer Buddy McGirt. Alcine said he’s ready for the fight both mentally and physically and appreciates the fact that he’s been given another chance after his losing streak and needs to win the fight to prove he’s worthy of it.
He said he realizes he’s in with a tough guy in Rodriguez and has a lot of respect for him and the way he never quits in his fights. Rodriguez has a lot of heart and isn’t shy about going toe-to-toe when he has to. Alcine was stopped in the first two fights during his losing string, one of them being to Matthew Macklin in the first round in 2012. The other three were all by decision. He was also stopped by Daniel Santos and Alfredo Angulo earlier in his career, so his chin is definitely questionable.
Rodriguez was stopped by Miguel Cotto in three rounds in his last fight in October of 2013. He lost a unanimous decision to former champion Austin Trout in a title fight in 2012 and has a couple of wins in between. He’s best known for his two slugfests against Pawel Wolak back in 2011 when he fought to a draw the first time around and won a 10-round unanimous decision in the rematch.
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Prediction
At this stage of their careers the advantage should go to the younger Rodriguez. He’s arguably fought better opponents over the years and has a better chin and work rate. The venue is an odd one since it’s a 60,000-seat outdoor stadium that held the first Sugar Ray Leonard vs Roberto Duran fight. It will be converted into about 1,500 for the fight. It’s also going to be pretty chilly outside and that could affect one or both of these boxers who are now used to warmer climates. Alcine may have something left in the tank, but Rodriguez should be able to do enough to stop him late or take a close decision.
Odds
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Delvin Rodriguez betting • Joachim Alcine betting