By Richard Weir: January 29th will be the battle of the unbeaten light welterweights with WBC champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) facing the small but very tough WBO title holder Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s) in what will likely be a fierce back and forth battle at the neutral venue of the Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan. The two fighters weren’t willing to fight in each others home cities and risk losing a hometown decision. That may have been the case for Alexander’s last opponent Andriy Kotelnik, who fought a very good fight against Alexander but had to go home having lost the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision in August 2010.

Kotelnik looked good enough to win in the minds of many fans. The win may have counted on Alexander’s record, but the fight showed starkly that Alexander fights good in the early parts of his fights, but if he’s pressured, he wears down and becomes much less effective as the rounds progress. Alexander can dish it out alright, but looks uncomfortable with getting hit.

Alexander got hit a lot in his fight with Kotelnik and by the end of the fight, he seemed a little disoriented when being interviewed afterwards. If there’s one thing that Bradley is good at, it’s putting pressure on his opponents and forcing them to fight hard. Bradley’s better speed is going to be a problem but it’s the pressure that may ultimately cause Alexander to fold in this fight.

Alexander needs to fight slowly, and not have pressure put on him to be at his best. Bradley probably isn’t going to be content to just wither away on the outside, doing nothing but eating jabs. He’s going to be attacking constantly and looking to force the issue. This is where Alexander’s stamina or lack thereof might cause him problems. He’s going to have to reach back for something extra in this fight or else he’s going to be left behind by Bradley and will end up losing by a significant margin on the scorecards.