By Jason Kim: Recently defeated former WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-1, 13 KO’s) is up for the idea of facing top light welterweight contender Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) in June or July, but not in a neutral venue. Instead, Alexander and his manager Kevin Cunningham want the fight to take place in Alexander’s home city of Saint Louis, Missouri, where they hope a Maidana-Alexander fight could draw 12,000 to 15,000 boxing fans.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a mighty tempting offer for Maidana, because he would be guaranteed a good payday for what would be a fairly easy fight due to Alexander’s lack of power and tendency to back off when attacked hard. However, given how former WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik was unable to win a decision when fighting Alexander in Saint Louis, Maidana might want to think very hard before agreeing to fight Alexander in his home city. WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley knew better than to take that risk, which is why his fight with Alexander took place in Pontiac, Michigan rather than in Saint Louis, where it would have no doubt made a lot more money in ticket sales.

For Maidana, he would really have to be looking for a knockout against Alexander if he wanted to avoid losing a hometown decision, but with the running ability that Alexander showed in his fight with Bradley, Maidana might have a problem cornering Alexander to score that knockout. If Alexander came to fight Maidana instead of backing off and looking to survive, Maidana probably wins every time out, because he brings all the same things that Bradley does but with much better power. Alexander couldn’t handle Bradley’s power and pressure and seemed to wilt mentally in the last three rounds of the fight ending with Alexander seeming to want no more in the 10th.

In an article at ESPN by Dan Rafael, Cunningham said “Team Alexander has no problem with fighting Maidana next. The fight draws 12,000 to 15,000 in The Lou [Saint Louis]. We will be ready for Maidana in June or July. Maidana is the meanest SOB in boxing. Huge fight in St. Louis.”

In other words, Cunningham and Alexander wants to call the shots for this fight, even though Alexander looked far worse in losing to Bradley than Maidana did in losing to WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan. That sounds like a bad deal for Maidana if you ask me. It puts him in the bad where he will almost have to knock Alexander out to get the win. Maidana already has one of those kinds of losses on his record when he lost a hometown decision to Kotelnik in 2009, when fighting Kotelnik in his adopted country of Germany. I don’t think Maidana will want another one of those kinds of defeats.