Devon Alexander defends against Shawn Porter this Saturday on Showtime

By Boxing News - 12/02/2013 - Comments

By Allan Fox: IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (25-1, 14 KO’s) defends his title against the unbeaten Shawn Porter (22-0-1, 14 KO’s) this Saturday on Showtime at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This is a step up from Alexander’s last title defense against Britain’s Lee Purdy, but it’s a step down from the guy that Alexander defeated to capture his IBF title against the hard hitting Randall Bailey.

Porter doesn’t have the power that Bailey has, so Alexander doesn’t have to worry about getting hit with anything major in this fight. Porter likes to throw a lot of punches, and he’s got good hand speed. However, he didn’t look that great in his two fights against Julio Diaz recently and he arguably lost their first fight last year.

Alexander had planned on fighting Amir Khan on December 7th, but Khan pulled out of the fight in order to avoid a potential loss that might ruin his chances of getting a money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year in May. Golden Boy Promotions wanted Khan to take the fight against Alexander because it would help redeem him for his losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. It would also have increased interest in a Mayweather-Khan fight by showing fans that Khan has improved since his losses to Garcia and Peterson. But Khan wanted to play it safe and avoid a potential loss to Alexander and so he ducked out of the fight.

Alexander has the better skills and the better resume than Porter. The difference between the two in terms of past competition is pretty significant. Porter is still in the beginning stages of his career and hasn’t been matched tough until now. That’s too bad because he’s not going to be ready for this fight on Saturday and we’re probably going to see a mismatch with Alexander easily winning.

The 26-year-old Porter has wins over Phil Lo Grego and Alfonso Gomez, but there’s no real solid win on his resume to where you can point at it as an indication that he’ll have a good chance of unseating Alexander as the IBF title holder on Saturday night.



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