By Dan Ambrose: WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KO’s) had been looking good in his first 20 fights beating the likes of an old Junior Witter and a primitive Juan Urango. But in Alexander’s last fight against Andriy Kotelnik, Alexander was badly exposed when the Ukrainian took the fight to Alexander, and wore him down and battered him with shots in the second half of the fight. Forget about the 12 round decision that Alexander won, he really should have lost that fight and many boxing fans will agree to that.

On January 29th, Alexander will be facing the light welterweight division’s best fighter in WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s) at the Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan. This is going to be where Alexander is going to have to up his game or else end up getting exposed once again. Bradley, 27, has looked nothing short of sensational in fights against Kendall Holt, Nate Campbell, Lamont Peterson and Luis Carlos Abregu in the past year.

There really hasn’t been anyone for Bradley to fight that could really push him in any way. Bradley was hoping to fight knockout artist Marcos Maidana last year, but Maidana came up with a back injury, which erased the possibility of the fight from happening. Bradley will have to be satisfied with Alexander, who is really nothing more than a speed bump in the past for Bradley as he moves steadily forward for his eventual boxing against WBA light welterweight champ Amir Khan next year.

That’s the fight that Bradley is really shooting for because he will knock off HBO’s hyped star and Bradley will then take over as the biggest star in the light welterweight division and be ready for bigger fish in the future like Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.