Alexander-Bradley draws only 6247 fans, King calls it a great success

By Boxing News - 01/31/2011 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: Last Saturday night’s light welterweight unification bout between WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander and WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley drew only 6247 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome, in Michigan. They were expecting a crowd of 15,000 and ended up with only half of that number. You have to think it’s a disappointment to the promoters of the event. However, Don King, the promoter for Alexander, put a positive spin on the low turnout, saying this to the Detroit News: “It’s a resurrection. Jesus rolled away the stones. Lazarus, come forth. You got a lot going here. It was a great success. The mere fact that it happened made it a tremendous success.”

That’s nice that King sees it that way, but the fight could have been much more successful had it taken place in Saint Louis, where Alexander lives and routinely draws huge crowds of over 10,000 fans. It was insane to have the Alexander vs. Bradley fight take place in Michigan where neither of the two fighters have a fan base. As for the fight itself, it was boring to watch, filled with headbutts and a lot of grabbing and holding. Fittingly, the fight ended with Alexander pretty much quitting after getting headbutted for the up-tenth time. It a match-up from the very start of the fight and steadily got worse as the fight progressed. Hopefully there won’t be rematch anytime soon.

Alexander says “I didn’t see after the head butt. My eyes are burning.” Some boxing fans think that Alexander was faking, hoping to maybe get a decision win early rather than trying his luck in the last two rounds.



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