Devon Alexander with great chance of beating Randall Bailey to capture IBF 147 lb title on September 8th

By Boxing News - 07/27/2012 - Comments

Image: Devon Alexander with great chance of beating Randall Bailey to capture IBF 147 lb title on September 8thBy Jason Kim: It doesn’t get any better than this for former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (23-1, 13 KO’s) in his September 8th fight against 37-year-old new IBF welterweight champion Randall Bailey (43-7, 37 KO’s). All Alexander has to do is make sure that he clinches enough to keep Bailey from getting off his shots, and he’ll be in a great position to win the fight.

This is pretty much what the 25-year-old Alexander did in his last fight against Marcos Maidana last February, beating him by a lopsided 10 round decision in Alexander’s home city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Clinching at a pace of over 10 clinches per round, Alexander was able to get his own shot off and then follow it with an immediate clinch to keep Maidana from throwing his own shots.

With the referee Steve Smoger doing little to keep Alexander from grabbing Maidana all night long, Alexander was able to shut him down in a fight that turned to be very boring to watch. You can bet that Alexander will do just as much clinching in the Bailey fight, if not more, because Bailey is a much bigger puncher than Maidana, and has true one-punch power in his right hand.

Alexander has a good chin, but I don’t think he wants to test it out against a fighter with the kind of power that Bailey has going for him. So, what we’ll probably be seeing is Alexander turning the fight into a wrestling match early on while the referee does nothing more than stand around and separate Alexander each time he initiates a clinch. Ideally, the referee will do his job and take points off or disqualify Alexander for the clinching to save boxing fans from watching an incredibly boring fight, but that’s not likely to happen. With Alexander free to clinch as often as he’d like, he’ll shut down Bailey’s offense, tire him out with the wrestling, and win the fight.

The only fighters that did well against Alexander’s clinching style were Tim Bradley, Lucas Matthysse and Andriy Kotelnik, because they either were good at fighting in close while being held or they landed enough shots on the outside to get the better of Alexander.



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