By Jim Dower: IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (20-0, 13 KO’s) will be defending his titles against former World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KO’s) on August 7th at the Scottrade Center, in Saint Louis, Missouri. Alexander, 23, had hopes of getting a high profile opponent like WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan or WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana as his next opponent. However, none of them have seemed too eager to get in the ring with the young and talented Alexander.

Instead, he’ll have to settle for the 32-year-old Kotelnik, which could work out well if Alexander is able to beat him more impressively than Khan did last year in July. Khan defeated Kotelnik by a lopsided 12 round decision in a fight that was never really competitive. Khan played it safe for most of the fight, using his jab, fighting on the outside and throwing short combinations. Later in the fight, Khan started opening up with more sustained action and ended up getting bruised a little because of it. Kotelnik has an excellent jab and can hit hard at times if he loads up on his shots.

Kotelnik has a questionable 12 round split decision win over Maidana in February 2009. A lot of people feel that Kotelnik should have lost that fight, but there’s little question that he gave Maidana a lot of problems with his boxing ability. If Alexander can make easy work of Kotelnik, he will be sending an oblique message that he’s a better fighter than Khan and Maidana. That’s about all Alexander can get from the Kotelnik fight, because it’s not particularly interesting that he’s taking on a fighter that was easily beaten by Khan and who hasn’t fought since that loss a year ago.

A lot of people feel that Alexander is fighting Khan’s leftovers, but there are really not a lot of other good options out there for Alexander other than Kotelnik right now. If none of the top light welterweights are available to fight Alexander right now, for whatever reason, then it makes sense for him to take on one of the former champions, since Kotelnik wants to fight him. This is a good fight for Kotelnik. If he can somehow beat Alexander, his career will be right back on track and he could then make some big money fights against perhaps Khan or Bradley. That would be the ideal situation for Kotelnik. However, it’s more than likely that he’ll end up getting dominated by Alexander and will either get stopped or end up losing a lopsided 12 round decision.