Mathieu Germain won a battle between Canadian junior welterweights Thursday night in front of his hometown fans.
Germain got inside at times and landed the more impactful punches on Steven Wilcox, who was too tentative, particularly in the first six rounds, and didn’t make enough use of his height and reach advantages during their 10-rounder on the Jean Pascal-Michael Eifert undercard at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The 33-year-old Germain, a Montreal native who resides in nearby Mascouche, defeated Hamilton’s Wilcox on all three scorecards and won a unanimous decision (97-93, 97-93, 96-94).
Germain (22-2-1, 9 KOs) has won four straight fights since Yves Ulysse Jr. (22-3, 12 KOs) beat him by seventh-round technical knockout in their November 2020 bout in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada. He also ended the six-fight winning streak of Wilcox (24-4-1, 7 KOs).
Wilcox seemingly needed a knockout entering the 10th and final round, but he didn’t have enough power to hurt Germain. Germain hit Wilcox with a left hook almost two minutes into the 10th round,
Wilcox caught Germain with a short left hook on the inside with 25 seconds to go in the ninth round. Germain suffered a cut over his right eye, which caused referee Junior Padulo to call for a brief break in the action with 1:45 remaining in the ninth round.
Wilcox was more aggressive during the eighth round, when he had more success than he experienced in any of the first seven rounds. Germain did catch him, however, with a left hook a few seconds before the eighth round ended.
A left hook by Germain landed with just over 20 seconds remaining in the seventh round.
Wilcox caught Germain with a right hand that connected with approximately 1:45 left in the sixth round. Germain’s right hand landed to the side of Wilcox’s head about 40 seconds into the sixth round.
A left-right combination by Germain buckled Wilcox’s legs 1:15 into the fifth round.
Germain’s left hook caught Wilcox with about 45 seconds on the clock in the fourth round. A right hand by Germain moved Wilcox backward about a minute into the fourth round.
Germain rocked Wilcox with a right hand 30 seconds into the third round.
After a first round in which not much action occurred, Germain came forward and brought the fight to Wilcox for much of the second round. Wilcox let his hands go toward the end of the second round, though neither fighter landed many flush punches in those three minutes.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.