(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By James Slater – It was some night last night in New York, as world championship boxing made a return to the Big Apple for the first time in over 80-years. Inside a buzzing Barclay’s Centre, we got off to a sluggish start and saw a snoozer of an opening world title clash, as Randall Bailey seemingly gave up his IBF welterweight title without much of a fight of it. Throwing few punches, those he did let go failing to do any damage to Devon Alexander, “The KO King” never came close to living up to his nickname.
The only interesting question regarding this fight is, will new champ Alexander face British star and mandatory contender Kell Brook next? Bailey must surely call it quits.
The second fight of the night made up for the stinker, as unbeaten middleweights Peter Quillin and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam gave us the battle of the night. In an amazing shootout, “Kid Chocolate” put the defending WBO champ down a whopping six times, looking oh, so close to getting the stoppage win more than twice. But N’Jikam, showing Rocky-like heart and guts, would not quit. Coming back to WIN a number of the later rounds (this after being turned into a yo-yo in the 4th and 6th-rounds), the Cameroon warrior made his name in defeat. A rematch would be a great idea.