Devon Alexander

Devon Alexander (born February 10, 1987) is an American professional boxer. Nicknamed "Alexander the Great", he is a former WBC and IBF light welterweight champion, as well as a former IBF welterweight champion.

Biography

Alexander grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of north St. Louis, Missouri in an area described as rough, gang- and drug-infested. Alexander was mentored by various people at a young age including Former NFL players Eric Drain and Demetrius Johnson, principal of Clay Community Education Center Frank Muelhauser, and PE teacher, Brad Slinkard. He would later join the boxing gym that Kevin Cunningham, a former police officer and security officer at Clay Community Center, turned trainer, founded in the basement of an old police station.

Thirty kids joined the boxing program of Cunningham, who had hoped to keep the kids out of trouble, off the streets, and in the ring. A stablemate of Alexander's, Cory Spinks would become welterweight champion. .

Amateur career

HBO World Championship Boxing

HBO World Championship Boxing is an American sports television series, premiering in January 1973 that has shown a number of significant boxing events since then.

WCB's first event was fought in Kingston, Jamaica, where George Foreman defeated Joe Frazier in two rounds to win the world heavyweight championship.

Memorable events

Marcos Maidana

Marcos René Maidana (born July 17, 1983) is an Argentine professional boxer and a two-weight former world champion, having held the WBA (Regular) super lightweight and WBA (Super) welterweight titles. A versatile brawler in the ring, Maidana is well known for his punching power.

Professional career

Light Welterweight

On February 2, 2009, the then-WBA Light Welterweight titleholder Andreas Kotelnik beat the then-undefeated Maidana (25-0, 24 knockouts) via controversial split decision, with the judges scoring the fight 115–114, 113–115, 115–113 in Kotelnik's favour.

Maidana's first fight in the United States was against Mexican-American Victor Ortíz, that took place on June 27, 2009. Maidana was knocked down three times within the first two rounds, but rallied and came back to beat Ortiz for the interim WBA super lightweight title with a sixth-round TKO victory.

After his fight with Ortiz, it was rumoured that Maidana would face British boxer, and WBA super lightweight champion, Amir Khan, who won the title after defeating Andreas Kotelnik. However, Khan opted for Paulie Malignaggi as his next opponent. As a result, Maidana was scheduled to fight on March 27, 2010 against Victor Manuel Cayo, whose record, at that time, was 24-0 with 75% of victories coming by way of knockout. Maidana knocked out the undefeated Cayo in the sixth round to retain his interim WBA super lightweight title and improve his record to 28-1, with 27 knockouts.

Devon

Devon (/ˈdɛvən/; archaically known as Devonshire) is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, and Dorset to the east. The City of Exeter is the county town; seven other districts of East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, South Hams, Teignbridge, Torridge, and West Devon are under the jurisdiction of Devon County Council; Plymouth and Torbay are each a part of Devon but administered as unitary authorities. Combined as a ceremonial county, Devon's area is 6,707 km² (2,590 square miles) and its population is about 1.1 million.

Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, and Early Medieval was the homeland of the Dumnonii Brittonic Celts. The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936. Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter.

Alexander

Alexander (/ˈæləɡzˈændər/, /ˈæləɡzˈɑːndər/) is a common male first name, and less common surname derived from the Greek "Αλέξανδρος" (Aléxandros). The most famous is Alexander the Great, who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.

Origin

Etymologically, the name is derived from the Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), meaning "Defender of the people" or "Defending men" and also, "Protector of men", a compound of the verb ἀλέξειν alexein, "to ward off, to avert, to defend" and the noun ἀνήρ anēr, "man" (GEN ἀνδρός andros). It is an example of the widespread motif of Greek (or Indo-European more generally) names expressing "battle-prowess", in this case the ability to withstand or push back an enemy battle line.

The earliest attested form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek feminine anthroponym 𐀀𐀩𐀏𐀭𐀅𐀨, a-re-ka-sa-da-ra (transcribed as Alexandra), written in the Linear B syllabic script.

The name was one of the titles ("epithets") given to the Greek goddess Hera and as such is usually taken to mean "one who comes to save warriors". In the Iliad, the character Paris is known also as Alexander. The name's popularity was spread throughout the Greek world by the military conquests of King Alexander III, commonly known as "Alexander the Great". Most later Alexanders in various countries were directly or indirectly named for him.