By Jim Slattengren: IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) defeated Andriy Kotelnik by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night in Saint Louis, Missouri. Although Alexander still got the win, he might as well have lost the fight because he looked thoroughly unimpressive during the fight.

Alexander got the decisions from the judges by the scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. However, Alexander has to consider himself very lucky that he got the win because many boxing fans felt that he should have lost the fight.

Alexander looked good in the opening round of the fight, but soon after began to have problems with Kotelnik’s jabs, left hooks and right hands. It was like Alexander was fighting someone for the first time that actually knew how to jab and Alexander seemed totally unprepared with how to deal with it.

When Alexander later on tried to crowd Kotelnik to try and work on the inside, Kotelnik responded by nailing Alexander with left hooks and short rights at close ranging, proving himself to be a better fighter on the inside than Alexander.

On the outside, Kotelnik dominated the action with his stronger jabs and combinations. Alexander was clearly busier, but he looked tight and showed no power as he threw a lot of arm punches. Alexander continued to throw many more punches compared to Kotelnik, but his accuracy just wasn’t there.

Kotelnik knew how to block Alexander’s shots or lean away from them. Having fought the big punching Marcos Maidana to a standstill last year, Kotelnik was more than ready for the comparatively much weaker shots from Alexander last night.

Maidana also threw a lot of punches like Alexander, but his shots had much more of an effect on Kotelnik because of his big power. At the end of the fight against Maidana, Kotelnik looked pretty well beaten up.

But against Alexander, Kotelnik looked unmarked and had the appearance of someone who had just finished a nice workout rather than a boxing match. Alexander, in contrast, looked like he had been through a war. His right eye was swollen and cut, and he looked exhausted.

In looking at the two fighters, it would be hard to pick out Alexander as the winner based on how beaten up he was at the end of the fight. But besides that, Alexander failed to prove that he was the better fighter. Alexander may move on and fight World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley in January, but I don’t think he deserves it based on how he looked against Kotelnik.