By Keith Terceira

A week ago, cruiserweight Max Alexander (14-3-2, 2KO) traveled to Vyborg, Russia to face Ali Ismailov (14-1-1, 9KO) in the Petersburg Region Gaz and from the start of his journey - things began to go bad. The former “Contender" contestant and his manager Eric Ramirez allege that the promoter was difficult to deal with when faced with complaints about the lack of phones in the hotel, as well as no transportation to the gym to train prior to the fight.

A long laundry list of issues that included bad food, no ice or water available at the venue, and often no translators, and that was only the beginning of the problems the camp experienced in Russia.

Ramirez filled in some more of the Vyborg fiasco by informing us that they weren’t even informed that their trainer George Hernandez was in town and staying in a different hotel. The only way that they knew was when Hernandez took it upon himself to track them down.

The true challenges though were during and after the bout itself.

“My manager and trainer had to run around in the streets to locate ice and water for our corner. I knew it was going to be a long night when they didn’t play my entrance music.” Alexander informed BoxingScene.com earlier today, just hours after flying back from Russia.

“From the first round, I’m boxing this kid’s head off, he isn’t very impressive, a little short really and a below average fighter. I’m not saying all Russian fighters are bad, but this guy was, even with his Olympic background and all. He didn’t even hit me in the first at all. When I get back to my corner I realize that they have lawn chairs in the corners instead of stools. Plastic picnic chairs for sitting on. I’m like what the heck is this. That’s when I started to really worry,“ Max continued.

“Hernandez was keeping time in the corner and calling out to me that there was 20 seconds or so left in the round and then the bell would ring . We were getting confused because some rounds went beyond time and others were shorter. We knew it wasn’t the stop watch because the periods in between rounds was correct. I was boxing the kid’s head off though, he only caught me with 4-5 flush shots the whole fight. I felt I had the fight in the bag. I hurt him a couple of rounds and almost had him out in the tenth when he staggered into the corner, it was such a good round I thought I definitely had a ten-eight round .”

“He was running trying to survive the tenth and the guy can’t fight at all, so I felt at the end there was no way they can cheat us this fight was mine. Except they found a way to rob us. What was worse was that all three judges scored every single round in Ali’s favor including the final round and the first when I was working my jab so well the guy couldn’t hit me”

“They did what they did but when they announced the fight people started throwing water buckets, bottles and chairs into the ring while booing. Guess he wasn’t a crowd favorite. The fans made me feel good. So when we go to see the scorecards and protest the fight that’s when we saw we hadn’t won even one round.”

Ramirez confirms that they officially protested the fight and he saw the official attach his protest to the fight scorecards.

“We lodged our protest to the Russian Boxing Federation and asked for a copy of the fight tape and scorecards.”

When Eric was asked about his confidence that he would get a response from the filing he responded in the affirmative.

“We will not let this one go that easy because it was such a blatant act of injustice. We will see this protest through.”

“I can’t believe that all the rounds, on every card was in his favor. Russia should be ashamed in supporting a fighter like this guy. He is not good, you shouldn’t want to support a fighter who can’t fight that well. I embarrassed him, so if they are trying to get him in line for a championship fight they will be disappointed just like I was by training hard for a fight and winning but getting robbed in the end. No one is perfect in this sport everyone loses one round on someone’s scorecard but this guy didn’t loss one round. That’s just not right!” a frustrated Max Alexander explained.

“I don’t know if they was betting on the fights out there or what but you can’t tell me this guy was so perfect that he shut me out on all three cards every round. Even Ray Charles could have scored it better. Even after the fight when we all went to the after party to eat, Ali Ismailov didn’t even show up but his camp did. They all came up to me telling me that I won the fight. The kid was so banged up that he didn’t even leave the locker room until they cleared the venue. All I had was sore hands from beating on him and he was swollen across the nose and his eyes. I you feel that you won in that manner you would be partying with your camp but he was a no show.”

When asked what he hoped to gain out of the protest Alexander confirmed he would be happy with a no contest.

“I want to win this because I know I won the fight convincingly but if they continue to do this in Russia then fighters need not to go over there because they are going to have to knock out their opponents and you can’t do that all the time. When you see the tape and hear the crowd cheering my name during the fight as well as how I performed everyone will see the truth in this result.”

Alexander and his camp is confident that this fight can be overturned and that the Russian Boxing Federation will overturn this decision based on the fact that they have overturned other bad calls recently.

What is clear, should a future review of the fight prove the allegations correct, that American fighters will need to be vigilant when taking future bouts in Russia .

To hear the full take on this protest and bout Alexander will appear on Talkin Boxing with Billy C.

Keith Terceira is a long time staff member of BoxingScene.com, UBC Vice President, Mid South Rep for the RBF, Contributor to Primer Round Magazine, and Co-Host of Talkin Boxing with Billy C. Forward questions to Keith@ talkinboxing.com