By Jim Dower: WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) says he doesn’t mind being the underdog for his January 29th fight against World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s). Bradley is a 3-1 favorite to beat Alexander, and much of that is based on Alexander’s poor performance in his last fight against Andriy Kotelnik in September.

Before that, the Alexander-Bradley fight was considered a toss-up, with many boxing fans feeling that Alexander had too much power and size for the smaller and weaker Bradley. However, Alexander just looked about as bad as a fighter could look against the weak punching Kotelnik, and seemed confused and unable to make adjustments when Kotelnik started to take control of the fight in the second part of the fight. On ESPN’s Fright Night Fights, Alexander said he doesn’t mind being the underdog against Bradley, and said he kind of likes being the underdog.

Because of that performance, Alexander is already being written off as a loser by a lot of fans. They’re already looking forward to Bradley’s match-up with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan for later this year. That fight will decide who the top light welterweight is in the division, at least until the winner of the Zab Judah vs. Kaizer Mabuza fight is revealed.

That will be the eventual opponent for the Khan vs. Bradley-Alexander winner, as will Victor Ortiz at some point. However, if Khan ends up beating Bradley or Alexander, he likely won’t stick around to try and prove himself against big puncher Ortiz or the Judah/Mabuza winner.

Khan plans on moving up to welterweight so that he can try and pursue a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Alexander has the size and power to give Bradley a lot of problems if he is able to beat him to the punch and land power shots. Bradley is vulnerable to getting knocked down and Alexander may have an opportunity to win if he can land some big shots while Bradley is coming forward trying to trade. Bradley is there to be hit.