By Jim Dower: Former World Boxing Association (WBA) junior welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KO’s) doesn’t see himself as a potential walking into a lion’s den when he meets IBF/WBC junior middleweight champion Devon Alexander (20-0, 13 KO’s) on August 7th at the Scottrade Center, in Saint Louis, Missouri. On the contrary, the 32-year-old Kotelnik thinks that he’s going to beat the 23-year-old Alexander, saying in an article at the Sportinglife, “They say it’s a long way to9 come for an a– kicking, but I have a question for Devon Alexander after his people have made all these boasts: Will Devon come back and fight me in a rematch in the Ukraine after I kick his a–? There will be an a– kicking, but St. Louis will be surprised who will be doing it.”

Kotelnik doesn’t appear to have much room to talk, though, because he’s coming off a one-sided loss to Britain’s Amir Khan last July 2009, in a fight in which Kotelnik was never even remotely competitive, losing his title in the process of getting totally dominated by Khan. However, Kotelnik may match up a little better against Alexander compared to Khan.

To start with, Alexander, 5’7”, isn’t as tall as the 5’10” Khan, and he’s almost not as fast. Kotelnik had a lot of problems with Khan’s longer reach and fast hands. Khan basically out-jabbed Kotelnik from long range and would mix in short, fast combinations to build up points. Kotelnik likes to mainly jab from the outside, but this was taken away from him by the movement and the longer reach of Khan.

Kotelnik did land a lot of shots later in the fight when Khan started getting braver, more stationary and more of a risk taker. However, Kotelnik didn’t have the power to hurt Khan and was simply out of his league against the faster and busier Khan.. But the 5’7” Kotelnik won’t have to worry about being at a disadvantage in reach and height against Alexander, because both fighters have essentially the same height and reach, so that won’t be much of a factor in this fight.

Alexander likes to jab from the outside, and has an excellent jab. However, Kotelnik has a great jab as well. Alexander will have to get in close if he wants to dominate Kotelnik because he won’t have much of an advantage in fighting him from the outside. Alexander is an excellent inside fighter and that could be where he could gives Kotelnik a lot of problems if the Ukrainian can’t keep him from getting in close.

In Kotelnik’s 12 round decision win over Marcos Maidana in February 2009, Kotelnik did a good job of backing away when Maidana would attempt to get in close. Kotelnik was able to control vast stretches of the fight by doing this. He did tire in the later rounds and take a lot of punishment from Maidana, but by then he had a substantial lead and could afford to give away from rounds.

Alexander is coming off an impressive 8th round stoppage of IBF junior welterweight champion Juan Urango in March. Alexander looked great in that fight turning what many people thought would be a close fight into a virtual route. Alexander was hoping to use this victory to get fights against Maidana, Khan or WBC light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. However, none of them are showing interest in fighting him at this point. This made it necessary for Alexander to fight Kotelnik.

It’s a huge step down from who Alexander wanted to fight, but it should be able to give a good indication of how good Alexander is if he’s able to beat Kotelnik even easier than Khan did. Beating Kotelnik isn’t a forgone conclusion, though, because he is an ex-Olympian and has better overall boxing skills than most of the fighters in the light welterweight division. What he lacks is speed and power, and that’s what makes him beatable.