By Chris Williams: Later on this month, WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) will have the tough task of facing what could very well be the best light welterweight in the division in unbeaten WBO champion Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s) in their fight at the Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan.

Alexander, 23, was pretty well beaten up and exposed in his last fight against former WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik in August of last year. Alexander won the fight by a 12 round decision but for all practical purposes really lost it because the fight was dominated by Kotelnik in the 2nd half of the fight.

Bradley is not just a little bit better than Kotelnik, he’s lot better. Forget about styles making fights. Alexander is in deep water against Bradley, and he’s clearly not ready for this kind of fight at this still early stage in Alexander’s development.

He may not ever get to Bradley’s level, but it’s still too early for Alexander to be facing someone this good. Alexander’s people really need to back to square one, look at his fight with Kotelnik and then try to actually beat him in a rematch instead of getting a gift.

That’s the fight that Alexander really needs, because in my view, he flunked the Kotelnik test. It’s like flunking a math test and then still being pushed to a higher grade where the math is even tougher. Alexander just isn’t ready for a guy like Bradley.

Since the fight has already been made, Alexander is going to have to take his beating like a man and hope he doesn’t get beaten up too badly. He needs to jab and move and try to limit his exchanges because Bradley’s a lot faster and superior in throwing combinations.