Alexander vs. Bradley won’t be taking place in Devon’s home town of Saint Louis

By Boxing News - 08/09/2010 - Comments

Image: Alexander vs. Bradley won’t be taking place in Devon’s home town of Saint LouisBy Dan Ambrose: After Saturday’s controversial 12 round unanimous decision win by IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) over Andriy Kotelnik in Devon’s home city of Saint Louis, Missouri, Gary Shaw, the promoter for World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s), reportedly said that if there is a fight between Bradley and Alexander in January of next year, it won’t be taking place in Alexander’s home city of Saint Louis. Shaw, and a lot of other boxing fans, felt that Alexander won a home town decision and he doesn’t want the same thing to happen to his fighter.

In one poll at badlefthook.com, 68% of those polled thought that Kotelnik should have won the fight with only 24% thinking that Alexander should have won it. 7 % thought it should have been scored a draw. Having seen the fight myself, I thought that Kotelnik should have won by at nine rounds to three. However, the judges and HBO unofficial ringside scorer, Harold Lederman, and ESPN writer Dan Rafael all thought that Alexander rightfully won the fight.

With so many boxing fans disagreeing, it’s highly unlikely that Shaw is going to want to have his fighter Bradley try his own luck in trying to win a decision over Alexander in Saint Louis, if the two fighters are able to negotiate a fight next year. But at the same time, Alexander doesn’t want to fight in Bradley’s home town either, saying in an interview on the theboxingtruth.com, “Why would I do that. He only draws 2,000 people there.” So there it is. Neither Bradley nor Alexander wants to fight in each other’s home town.

If the fight does take place, it will have to take place in a neutral venue in Las Vegas, Nevada or Atlantic City, New Jersey. I think the fight will likely end up in either of those two places. This isn’t a stadium-type fight, so we won’t be seeing Alexander vs. Bradley at the Cowboy Stadium or anything like that. If I was to pick an early winner of a bout between Bradley and Alexander, I would have to choose Bradley by an overwhelming 12 round decision. I don’t think the fight would be even slightly close, because Alexander looked really raw and incredibly flawed in his fight with Kotelnik.

And like I said, I saw Kotelnik beating Alexander by the scores of 9-3, and that was after giving Alexander a couple of rounds that I thought could have easily gone to Kotelnik. Since I think Bradley is a lot better fighter than Kotelnik, I can’t see Alexander winning a round against Bradley. I don’t think Alexander is in the same league as Bradley right now and I have a feeling that he never will be. He’s just missing something in a lot of different areas for him to beat a quality fighter like Bradley. However, I think Alexander will continue to do well when fighting at home in Saint Louis, but I see a lot more controversial decisions in the future when he’s put in with quality fighters over there.



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