By Dan Ambrose: Marcos Maidana (31-3, 28 KO’s) needs to be a lot more aware in the future about who his management picks out for him in terms of opponents, because it was a really BAD IDEA for the 28-year-old Maidana to agree to a fight against former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (23-1, 13 KO’s) on so many levels that wasn’t even funny. Maidana was soundly beaten by Alexander by a lopsided 10 round decision last Saturday night in Alexander’s home city at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.

There are number of reasons why this was a bad idea for Maidana to take the Alexander fight and I’m frankly surprised that his management would agree to risk messing up his career in taking this fight. Look at the issues that Maidana had facing him:

* Fighting in Alexander’s home town was a really bad idea. If they had noticed, Lucas Matthysse and Andriy Kotelnik had both lost controversial decisions to Alexander in Saint Louis. Alexander’s win over Maidana last Saturday wasn’t a controversial bout, but it’s to see the logic in Maidana agreeing to fight him there. It’s almost as if he was asking for a loss by accepting the idea of fighting Alexander there rather than a neutral venue.

* Alexander’s having superior hand and foot speed compared to the slower Maidana.

* Alexander’s tendency to tie up his opponents on the inside to keep them from fighting. Maidana or his management should have scouted out Alexander’s prior fights and noted that he likes to hit and hold. Facing a guy that wraps you up as soon as he lands his shots is a difficult type of opponent for anybody to fight. Timothy Bradley was successful against Alexander because he got off his punches quicker and was a much better inside fighter than him. That’s not saying much because Alexander has no real inside game, hence he clinches.

* Maidana’s management should have spoken up to get a tough referee like Jay Nady to work the fight, as he doesn’t put up with fighters clinching. Maidana needed a referee that wouldn’t let Alexander to clinch 10 times per round without losing points. Some boxing fans say clinching is part of the game, but it isn’t part of the game when one fighter is initiating 10+ clinches per round. That defeats the game, makes less interesting to watch and spoils it for the more exciting fighters. I know clinching will never be eradicated altogether but boxing needs to make some serious changes in the game to have referees take away clinching from the sport as much as possible. With boxing now having serious competition from an all action sport like MMA, it doesn’t need to have fighters clinching and spoiling the excitement for the game. If these fighters don’t know how to fight on the inside without clinching, then they need to learn fast or deal with taking loses. It’s survival of the fittest in boxing and having guys clinch that much is really bad for boxing.