By Dave Lahr: I hope WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) is ready to take a beating tonight because that’s what he’s going to be getting in his unification bout against WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s) in their fight at the Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan. Bradley, 27, is looking about as close to being unbeatable as I’ve seen a fighter, and Alexander is coming off a poor performance against Andriy Kotelnik in his last fight. Alexander was exposed in that fight and I see Bradley taking advantage of the flaws that Kotelnik exposed in his controversial 12 round decision loss.

Alexander is a good fighter but at 23, he’s still learning how to fight. His best wins were against the slow and limited Juan Urango and the old, past his prime and injured Junior Witter. Those are decent wins, but far from the kinds of victories that Bradley has chalked up. And Alexander’s victory over Kotelnik was more of a loss than a win. Alexander got dominated in the 2nd half of that fight and is lucky he was fighting at home instead of elsewhere, because he probably would have lost had the fight taken place outside of Saint Louis.

I see Bradley coming inside and firing off powerful combinations against Alexander. This is going to be a fight where Bradley takes Alexander’s heart away by battering him in close and getting the better of Alexander. I see Alexander getting cut up the way he was in the Kotelnik fight, and struggling. After the Kotelnik fight, Alexander sounded almost embarrassed that he had won the fight. He’ll be embarrassed again tonight, but for a different reason.