By Dan Ambrose: IBF welterweight champion Randall Bailey (43-7, 37 KO’s) has a really tough first title defense against former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (23-1, 13 KO’s) on September 22nd in a still to be determined venue in San Antonio, Texas.

Alexander moved up to the welterweight division recently and the move seemed to his help his game in terms of having more power. However, he’s still got a nasty habit of clinching quite frequently. The clinching probably was especially noticeable in his last fight against Marcos Maidana last February. In that fight, Alexander clinched over 10 times per round, and that’s quite a bit of clinching for smaller fighters. Heavyweights can clinch that much but they have large bodies and need frequent rest breaks. But Alexander wasn’t clinching in order to get a rest break; he was clinching to keep from getting hit by Maidana’s big shots. The referee Steve Smoger failed to take points off from Alexander for doing this, and it eventually made the fight unwatchable.

Bailey recently defeated previously unbeaten welterweight contender Mike Jones by an 11th round knockout last June in a fight where Bailey was well behind in at the time he got the stoppage. It was a great win for the 37-year-old Bailey, because it looked like he was on his way to losing the fight until he caught Jones with a perfect right uppercut while Jones was in the process of trying to clinch.

Bailey may need to KO Alexander with a single shot if he wants to win the fight because Alexander is likely going to be clinching like mad in this fight. If he clinched 10 times per round against Maidana, he may up it to 15 or more clinches against Bailey. It’ll be interesting to see if the referee does anything about it or if he just lets Alexander do this without taking points off or disqualifying him for excessive clinching.

The undercard has a fight that could be even better than the main event with light welterweight contenders Lucas Matthysse and Ajose Olusegun fighting for the interim WBC light welterweight title. That’s going to be great fight and it promises to have much more action than what will likely be a clinch-filled fight between Bailey and Alexander.

Also on the undercard will be unbeaten middleweight contender Peter Quillin in action against an opponent still to be determined. Quillin is ready to step up finally against a good opponent after spending the last seven years of his career facing mostly journeyman, fringe level contenders or old fighters past their best. The 29-year-old Quillin has to step it up soon because he’s wasting too many years of his career facing weak opposition and he’s still going to have major problems if he’s put in with someone like Sergio Martinez or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.