By Eric Thomas: Whatever former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-1, 13 KO’s) does on Saturday night he’s got to fight tooth and nail against knockout artist Lucas Matthysse (28-1, 26 KO’s) in their World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight eliminator bout at the Family Arena, in Saint Charles, Missouri. Alexander can’t afford to look bad like he did in his last fight against Timothy Bradley last January. A lot of boxing fans felt that Alexander quit in that fight after clashing heads with Bradley in the 10th.

If Alexander is going to lose to Matthysse then Alexander needs to go out on his shield this time and take the loss on his back. Alexander has to at least show some heart in this fight if he’s going to lose, and a lot of boxing fans think that Alexander will lose. However, he’s fighting at home and that surely will help if the fight is somewhat close as his recent bout with former WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik was last year. Alexander won that fight but looked poor.

The worst thing that can happen to Alexander is for him to get beaten again and him looking like he doesn’t want to fight it out. Another poor fight for Alexander would hurt him with in getting boxing fans to believe in him again, and it would be difficult to imagine that his future fights would be shown on cable unless he were to really turn things around. Alexander is still young at 24, and could turn things around but a loss to Matthysse would be bad.

Alexander has the power and the speed to compete with Matthysse, but the only question here is whether Alexander has the heart to take the punishment that Matthysse will be dishing out in abundance. Matthysse has no problems taking punishment and is an excellent inside fighter. It’s unclear if Alexander will be trying to punch it out with Matthysse at close range.