A night of upsets in Connecticut

By Marc Abrams & Joseph Davey (ringside)

Joachim Alcine pulled off a big upset by scoring a unanimous decision to win the WBA Super Welterweight title from Travis Simms in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Simms controlled the action early as he was landing straight left hands and tieing up Alcine, who seemed tight early in the fight. In round six, Alcine was docked a point for hitting on the break and that seemed to wake him up.

Alcine became more aggressive in the second half of the fight by backing Simms up forcing the reiging champion to clinch more often. That came back to haunt him as he was docked a point in round eight for holding and hitting on the break by referee Michael Ortega. In round nine, Alcine scored a flash knockdown when he landed a jab and Simms went down for the first time in his career at any level. Alcine heldoff any rally as he boxed effectively and landed shots to win the championship rounds.

Scores were 115-110, 116-109 and 114-111 for Alcine, 152 1/4 of Montreal via Haiti and is now a world champion with a record of 29-0. Simms, 152 1/2 lbs of Norwalk, CT suffers his first defeat and is now 25-1

"I still feel like the champion, but this was his night. He won fair and sqaure and natrually I want a rematch. I take my hat off to him. I dont want to make any excuses but I hurt my left hand in the early rounds." said Simms after the fight. "That wasn't a knockdown, the ring was covered with swat and water. You need to use good judgement."

I definatly won the fight. I think Simms won three rounds. he was an awakward fighter. For all the talking before the fight, I thought he would be more aggressive. He is not a bad boxer, but I thought he would be a bigger puncher. I Picked it up after the firdt few rounds. I now know i am good enough to fight anyone in the division." said the new champion

In a stunning upset, Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Doniare claimed the IBF and IBO flyweight titles from Vic "The Raging Bull" Darchinian via a fifth round TKO. The fight opened with Doniare controling the action with a sharp jab and rights to the body while Darchinyan was content with stalking and loading up on left hand bombs, most of which missed. This trend continued until the fifth round when Darchinyan, again loading up a left, caught a perfect left hook on the chin which sent him sprawling to the canvas. He tried to get up but stumbled into the ropes prompting referee Eddie Claudio to stop the fight at 1minute 38 seconds of the fifth round. Doniare said after the fight "He has heavy hands but my brother told me he's not as tough as he thinks he is. I shut him up and he still wouldn't admit in the ring after the fight that I beat him." With this win Doniare moves to 18-1 with 10KO's while Darchinian drops to 28-1 with 22KO's.

Former IBF Jr. Bantamweight champion Luis Perez and Genaro Garcia faced off for the vacant Bantamweight title from same sanctioning body.

The fight started out very fast with Perez landing hard jabs. Later in the round, Perez landed combinations that started the nose of Garcia to bleed. Garcia started round two with some nice combination punching that got him into the fight. Perez came back with a left hook that set off a big barrage of punches. Perez then dropped Garcia with a bight right-left combination at the end of the round. Perez continued to pound Garcia with hard punches throughout the early portion of the fight. Garcia continued to come forward and try to land to the body but it only kept him in range for Perez to continuously nail Garcia with big punches.

In round seven, Perez was landing with combination and left hooks. Perez landed one more left hook that dropped Garcia and referee Charlie Dwyer called a halt to the action at 39 seconds of round seven.

Perez, 118 lbs of Managua, Nicaragua is now a two-division champion with a record of 25-1 with sixteen knockouts. Garcia, 118 lbs of Puebla, Mexico is now 35-6

In a major upset, Demetrice King stopped previously undefeated knockout artist Bermane Stiverne with a fourth round stoppage.

It looked like another Stiverne early knockout in round one as Stiverne dropped King with a big right hand. The fight changed at the end of round three when King started getting his offense going. King landed a huge right hand that set off about a twenty five punch barrage where King was landing huge shots with both hands. Stiverne was throwing punches in intervals but the referee stopped the bout at 1:59 of the round.

King, 270 lbs of Flint, Michigan is now 12-15with ten knockouts. Stiverne, 245 lbs of Las Vegas suffers his first loss after twelve straight knockouts.

Guilermo Jones scored an easy unanimous decision over Zack Page in an eight round Cruiserweight bout.

Jones used his length and jab to score a knockdown in round two and cruised with the exception of round eight when Page mounted his only significant offense of the fight.

Scores were 79-72 on two cards and 78-74 for Jones, 210 lbs of Colon, Colombia who is now 35-3-2. Page, 201 3/4 lbs of Warren, Ohio is now 13-14-1.

Cliff Couser pulled of an upset when he stopped Monte Barrett at 42 seconds of round two of a scheduled ten round Heavyweight bout

Barrett controlled the first round with his jab and occasional right hand. Couser foreshadowed what was to come as he connected with a left hook and a hard right at the bell. Barrett was visibly shaken to begin round two when Couser landed a big right that dropped Barrett. Couser then landed a big right for which Danny Schivone stopped the fight in the second round.

With the win, Couser, 242 lbs of St. Louis is now 26-13-2 with fourteen knock outs. Barrett, 227 lbs of Queens, New York is now 31-6

Devon Alexander scored a second round knockdown en route to a third round stoppage over Marcus Luck in a scheduled eight round Super Lightweight bout.

The end came at 1:28 of the third round when a flurry caused referee Johhny Callas to stop the fight. Alexander, 140 lbs from St. Louis is now 12-0 with seven stoppages. Lucks, 143 lbs of Danville, VA is now 8-15-1

Sergio Rivera, 160 1/2 lbs of San Juan, Puerto Rico scored a four round unanimous decision over Devin Laney, 162 lbs of Miami, Florida in a Middleweight bout.

Scores were 39-37 on all cards for Rivera who is now 2-0. Laney is 0-2