Devon Alexander faces Aaron Martinez tomorrow night

By Boxing News - 10/13/2015 - Comments

Image: Devon Alexander faces Aaron Martinez tomorrow nightBy Dan Ambrose: Devon Alexander (26-3, 14 KOs) will be making his ring return this Wednesday in a must win situation against Aaron Martinez (19-4-1, 4 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN against Aaron Martinez (19-4-1, 4 KOs) at the Gila River Arena, in Glendale, Arizona.

Alexander, 28, still believes that he can eventually be one of the elite fighters in boxing, but with him having lose 2 out of his last 3 fights, the future isn’t looking bright for him right now. Alexander was beaten by Amir Khan last December in a 12 round decision loss.

The fight was not competitive, and Alexander lost every round on many of the boxing fan’s scorecards. Alexander was also beaten by Shawn Porter by a one-sided 12 round decision in 2013. Rather than figure out that he doesn’t belong at welterweight, Alexander is persisting in sticking it out in the division.

Beating Aaron Martinez won’t prove anything for Alexander. If anything, it will merely delay the inevitable for him. Alexander can beat the B class fighters like Martinez. It’s when he tries to step it up against the A-class guys that he struggles and loses.

“Who are the next elite fighters?” said Alexander via RingTV.com. “I haven’t been fighting since I was 7 years old for nothing. I needed to get my mind right, make sure that losing isn’t an option anymore.”

The welterweight division has gotten a lot better recently with guys like Keith Thurman and Errol Spence emerging as forces to be reckoned with. Alexander doesn’t have the punching power to compete with either of those guys on paper, and that’s something that’s not going to change in the future.

At this point, Alexander would likely be beaten by guys like Chris Algieri, who is perhaps just as good as Khan. There are light punchers in the welterweight division that can do exactly what Alexander can do, but a lot better.

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“Sometimes you just have to re-focus, re-program, to remind yourself what’s important and what’s not,” Alexander said.

I don’t think it’s about re-focusing or re-programming in Alexander’s case. He’s as good as he’ll ever be. It’s more of a lack of size and punching power holding him back in the welterweight division. It’s unclear why Alexander moved up to 147. If he did it because he can no longer make weight at 140, then he’s pretty much stuck at welterweight. But if he did it just to chase bigger paydays, I think he needs to move back down in weight because I don’t think Alexander is going to continue to get the big fights now that he’s been beaten by Porter and Khan.

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Alexander didn’t lose the fights to those guys because of technique problems. He lost because he didn’t have the punching power to handle them. Khan was too fast and too strong. Porter was simply too strong and aggressive on the inside. Alexander may have had his 15 minutes of fame as the IBF welterweight champion, and now it seems to be over with for him.

Also on the card are the following fights:

Lee Selby vs. Fernando Montiel
Ivan Redkach vs. Miguel Zamudio



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