11.06.08 – by James Slater: Unbeaten WBA light-middleweight champion Joachim Alcine of Quebec, Canada makes the second defence of his title on July 11th. The 32-year-old, who made history by becoming the first fighter from the country of Haiti to win a world title in the sport of boxing, will take on Puerto Rican southpaw Daniel Santos..
Alcine, who moved to Canada at the age of nine, won the WBA belt by out pointing Travis Simms last July. A 12th round stoppage over Alfonso Mosquera followed in December, and now the man known as “Ti-Joa” gets ready to make his second defence in Quebec. Santos, currently 31-3-1(22), is a good fighter – albeit one that hasn’t been overly active as of late. With just three fights to his name in the last two-and-a-half years, the 32-year-old is a fighter that some fans may well have almost forgotten about.
At one time beating the formidable Antonio Margarito (by a technical decision), Santos has also defeated good fighters such as Fulgencio Zuniga, “Yori Boy” Campas and, in his last fight, Jose Antonio Rivera. It was the 8th round TKO win over Rivera, this past October, that earned the former WBO welterweight and WBO light-middleweight champion his shot at Alcine.
Obviously, Santos’ non-losing bouts with Margarito (they fought twice, the first bout being a No-Contest due to a clash of heads) look even better today considering how highly thought of “Tony” is. And even though Santos never exactly “beat” Margarito in the conventional sense – their rematch also coming to an end due to a head butt, this time seeing Santos win on points – he handled himself very well against the fearsome Mexican. Indeed, his win in fight two should have propelled him onto bigger things. Instead, Santos lost his WBO belt in his very next fight – losing a decision to Ukraine’s Sergiy Dzinziruk in December of 2005.
Santos has won two in a row since this loss in Germany and now has the chance to reign once again. On his best form Santos is a technically sound southpaw, and he can punch pretty good, too. Only ever stopped once in a career that began back in September of 1996, Santos is durable enough also. The stoppage loss came at the hands of Kofi Jantuah way back in 1999, and no-one else has been able to halt Santos since – not even the mighty Margarito.
It would come as quite a shock if the talented but far from lethal punching Alcine were to stop Santos in July. For though he may have seen better days, the Puerto Rican still figures to be good enough to give “Ti-Joa” a hard fight. Look for Alcine to win a close decision on the 11th in Montreal, Quebec as he improves his record to 31-0(19).