By Jim Dower: In what will likely be one of the best fights of 2011, unbeaten WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) will be going up against undefeated WBO title holder Timothy Bradley in 12 rounds of action on January 29th at the Pontiac Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan.

This fight in itself is going to go a long way towards revealing who the best fighter in the light welterweight division is. The winner of this bout will then, at some point, take on World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan in a unification bout. The winner of that fight will then be considered the best fighter in the light welterweight division.

There would still be the IBF light welterweight title, which will be decided when contenders Kaiser Mabuza faces Zab Judah. However, for the most part, the winner of the Khan vs. Alexander/Bradley winner will be considered the best fighter in the division.

Bradley hasn’t been in too much of a rush to take on Alexander, as he’s wanted to let the fight build up by both fighters winning more fights and making more of a name for them before they would ultimately face off for bigger money.

The problem with that is that there just haven’t been enough exciting fighters for either of them to face off against to build up their names with. HBO also wants the fight to happen now rather than later.

As such, Bradley will be forced to take the fight much earlier than he wanted. The good thing about it is that the winner of all these fights could find themselves in the position to get bigger fighters and bigger paydays in the future, perhaps even against someone like Manny Pacquiao unless Khan wins it. In that case, he won’t get the Pacquiao fight because he’s friends with Pacquiao. But he would still wind up a much bigger star.