Devon Alexander vs Ivan Redkach, Hugo Centeno Jr vs Willie Monroe Jr set for June 1 on FS1.
Headlined by a welterweight fight between Devon Alexander and Ivan Redkach, is headed to Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, California.
The co-feature will be a middleweight fight between Hugo Centeno Jr and Willie Monroe Jr, and unbeaten heavyweight Onoriode Ehwarieme will face Rodney Hernandez.
Alexander (27-5-1, 14 KO) is a former titleholder at 140 and 147, but has had a tough run over the last five-and-a-half years. He lost his IBF welterweight title in Dec. 2013 to Shawn Porter, and after a bounce-back win over veteran brawler Jesus Soto Karass, he dropped back-to-back fights to Amir Khan and Aron Martinez.
The loss to Khan was one thing, but the loss to Martinez, meant to be another bounce-back sort of fight, was another. Alexander later revealed he had dealt with a serious painkiller addiction:
“About the Maidana fight (in 2012), I became addicted — actually, it was after surgery. ... (It went on for) a good two years. The last two years just got worse. My reflexes, everything was just dead. I wasn’t myself. You can see that in my performances. You can see it. The Shawn Porter fight, you can see that it was kinda taking over. Definitely in the Khan and the Martinez fight, it definitely took over. I was just not myself. It had taken over my life, taken over everything.”
Alexander got healthy and came back in Dec. 2017 after two years out of the ring, beating veteran Walter Castillo. In 2018, he had a couple of really bad breaks — he fought to a draw with Victor Ortiz in a fight almost everyone felt Alexander deserved to win, and then lost a very debatable split decision to Andre Berto. Bad Left Hook scored both fights for Alexander, for what it’s worth.
Hugo Centeno Jr (27-2, 14 KO) was also once considered a prospect, but a 10th round stoppage against Maciej Suleck in 2016 took his unbeaten record, and a second round knockout loss to Jermall Charlo came in 2018. Between those fights, he did score a beautifully brual knockout win over Immanuwel Aleem in Aug. 2017.
The 28-year-old Centeno now faces Willie Monroe Jr (23-3, 6 KO), a two-time world title challenger who was mowed down by Gennady Golovkin in 2015 and also lost to Billy Joe Saunders in a miserable fight in 2017. Monroe, 32, has won his last two against Carlos Galvan and Javier Maciel.
