By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (20-0, 13 KO’s) defends his titles this Saturday night against former WBA junior middleweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KO’s) at the Scottrade Center, in Saint Louis, Missouri. This isn’t the fight that boxing fans wanted to see. They wanted to see Alexander face either WBA junior middleweight champion Amir Khan or WBO junior middleweight title holder Timothy Bradley. But since neither Khan nor Bradley was in position to fight Alexander, he has to settle for fighting Kotelnik. This should be a mildly entertaining fight while it lasts, but not really a competitive fight.

The 32-year-old Kotelnik has no power or hand speed. He’s basically a stand up fighter who fights out of the European stance, and likes to throw a lot of jabs and 1-2 combinations. Kotelnik is very, very basic and predictable. He was totally out-boxed by Khan last year in losing his WBA title to Khan in a one-sided 12 round decision loss. Had Kotelnik had any kind of power, he probably would have had a great chance in knocking Khan out, but the power just isn’t there for Kotelnik. He may do alright against Alexander if Devon makes the mistake of trying to fight Kotelnik’s fight by boxing him instead of going after him and trying to hurt him with combinations.

If this fight ends up in a war of jabs, Kotelnik will make things very difficult for Alexander, because jabbing is the one thing that Kotelnik can do. However, Alexander has a better jab, so the two fighters will essentially cancel each other out if the fight ends up in a boring jab-fest.

Alexander will need to apply pressure, walk through some of Kotelnik’s shots because he needs to win impressively to make a better claim that he’s the best fighter in the junior welterweight division. With none of the top light welterweights fighting each other, the only thing they can do is try to look as good as they can against the lesser fighters in the division. In Alexander’s case, he’s taking on a guy that was recently beaten by Khan last year. By beating Kotelnik even worse than Khan, Alexander can show people that he’s possibly better than the British fighter.

It’s all pretty pointless, because these guys really should be fighting each other at this point rather than other fighters, but that’s how things have been going in this division for awhile now. If Alexander can beat Kotelnik, then there’s talk of Alexander fighting Bradley in January. That remains to be seen, because it’s possible that fight won’t happen. Khan, in the meantime, is looking to fight a lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez rather than the top light welterweights.

According to Yahoo Sports, Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Khan, aren’t interested in matching him against Alexander because of the potential hassles with trying to put the fight together with Alexander’s promoter. Hopefully, that’s a fight that can be put together soon, because Khan and Alexander are going to be running out of opponents soon if they keep winning.