Although a right foot injury has forced British welterweight contender Kell Brook to pull out of his scheduled May 18 clash with Devon Alexander, the IBF titleholder is still focused on making a defense against an opponent to be determined in the Showtime-televised co-feature to the Lamont Peterson–Lucas Matthysse fight at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Click here for a video of Alexander’s workout.

Alexander (24-1, 13 knockouts) appears to have fully recovered from the “freak” bicep injury that forced his bout with Brook to be postponed from Feb. 23. Prior to that, Alexander-Brook was originally scheduled for Jan. 19 before Brook’s ankle injury forced its postponement from that date.

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said he is working with the IBF to find a replacement for Alexander, a former IBF and WBC junior welterweight titleholder who has turned in solid performances in his past two 147-pound bouts. Alexander posted a one-sided unanimous decisions over hard-punching foes Marcos Maidana and Randall Bailey last year.

With a win over Brook (29-0, 19 KOs) or whomever is next, Alexander could establish himself as perhaps a front runner to face WBC counterpart Floyd Mayweather, who has a May 4 defense of his WBC belt against Robert Guerrero. 

GUERRERO MOCKS MAYWEATHER IN EFFIGY WITH PINATA

In advance of their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Guerrero mocks Mayweather in effigy with a pinata fashioned in his likeness in an All-Access episode to air on Showtime on Wednesday..

Click here for the video clip.

GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX’S TRAINER PEDRO DIAZ GOES TO 2-0 VS. ROBERT GARCIA

With Saturday night’s HBO-televised unanimous decision over Nonito Donaire, Guillermo Rigondeaux added the RING, IBF and WBO junior featherweight championships to the WBA belt he already owned.

In addition, Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KOs) improved trainer Pedro Diaz’s record against Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia to 2-0 just two days after Garcia and Donaire were named Trainer of The Year and Fighter of The Year, respectively, by the Boxing Writers’ Association of America. Diaz trained Miguel Cotto for the Puerto Rican star’s revenge 10th-round TKO of Antonio Margarito in December of 2011.

Click here for a video interview with Diaz.

Diaz spoke to RingTV.com through translator Osvaldo Nordelo.

“It’s always important to win, but Robert Garcia is a great trainer, like Nacho Beristain and Freddie Roach, and I’m just a beginner,” said Diaz, who served as an amateur coach for Rigondeaux.

“I’m continuing to learn from the great trainers. I like being faced with the challenge of training against the best. I’m cold-blooded in that way.”

In his second fight with Diaz, Cotto lost by unanimous-decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who added Cotto’s WBA junior middleweight belt to his WBC welterweight title in Las Vegas in May of 2012.

Diaz returned to The Garden for his third fight with Cotto, a unanimous decision loss to WBA junior middleweight beltholder Austin Trout.in December of last year.

KEVIN CUNNINGHAM PRAISES RIGONDEAUX’S VICTORY

Having watched from ringside at Rigondeaux-Donaire, RING super middleweight champion Andre Ward and WBO welterweight beltholder Tim Bradley offered their assessments of the fight to RingTV.com.

On Monday, Alexander’s trainer, Kevin Cunningham, praised the performance of Rigondeaux, who rose from a 10th-round knockdown to win 114-113, 115-112, and, 116-111 on cards of judges John Stewart, Tom Schreck and Julie Lederman, respectively. RingTV.com scored it for Rigondeaux, 117-110.

“First of all, I want to congratulate Rigondeaux for a superb performance. I mean, I was thoroughly impressed. He boxed beautifully. He controlled the fight, and he punished Donaire with sharp shots when he wanted to. He totally disarmed Donaire’s left hook. I mean, he took his left hook away from him. I thought he boxed beautifully and very impressively,” said Cunningham.

“Rigondeaux was entertaining. Any boxing purist would enjoy a performance like that. Anybody that’s in the boxing business should have been impressed with a performance like that. If you’re not impressed with that masterful performance that he displayed, then maybe you should go and watch the MMA or the UFC, because that was an unbelievable performance. He made a pound-for-pounder and a Fighter of The Year look like an ordinary guy.”

GILBERTO RAMIREZ ADDED TO CRISTIAN MIJARES-VICTOR TERRAZAS CARD

Southpaw middleweight Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez Sanchez (24-0, 19 KOs), of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, M├®xico, will face Colombian power puncher Dionisio Miranda (22-8, 19 KOs) in his Top Rank debut on Saturday’s undercard to the  WBC junior featherweight title bout between beltholder Cristian Mijares (47-6-2, 22 KOs) and Victor “Vikingo” Terrazas (36-2-1, 21 KOs) at the New Mexico City Arena.
 
“I Feel great and very motivated to be making my first fight with Top Rank in Mexico City. These is a big step in my professional career and I am looking forward to the fight this weekend,” said Ramirez, 21.
 
“I know that Miranda is a good boxer with power, and has faced some very good opposition. I am looking forward to fighting him and will do what is necessary to win the fight. I know I can box or go toe to toe with him any time if I have too.”

Terrazas has won 10 straight fights, including seven by stoppage, and Mijares has won 11 consecutive fights, also seven by stoppage. Mijares is coming December’s ninth-round knockout of former two-division beltholder Rafael Marquez.
 

Photos by Tom Hogan, Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions

Photo courtesy of Showtime

Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Photo by Rene Perez, Zapari Boxing

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]