By Eric Thomas: Coming off of another controversial decision while fighting in his home state of Missouri, former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (22-1, 13 KO’s) is moving up in weight to the welterweight division to try his hand at that weight class.

Alexander, 24, says it’s too hard for him to make the 140 pound light welterweight limit anymore without continually draining himself and will now be fighting at 147. The move can’t come soon enough, as Alexander has struggled badly in his last three fights at light welterweight against Andriy Kotelnik, Timothy Bradley and Lucas Matthysee.

You can make a pretty good argument that Alexander should have lost all three of them, and not just the fight to Bradley. I personally thought Alexander came close to winning none of them. I saw him losing all three, so its’ a good thing that he’s moving up in weight because he can’t make a career out of winning controversial decisions while fighting at home in Missouri. I mean, I guess he can but not sure how long HBO would want to show his fights if the outcomes of the fights are controversial and run counter to what the HBO analysts are saying about who should have won the fight.

Alexander had a very small window where he was fighting really well at 140, but that window seems to have closed completely starting last year in his fight against Kotelnik. Since then, Alexander has looked horrible in the Bradley and Matthysse fights.

At only 5’8 with a wiry build and a lack of huge punching power, it’s hard to see Alexander making a huge impact at welterweight. To be sure, he’s good enough to beat Malignaggi, but that’s saying a lot. Alexander will likely be a similar fighter to Kell Brook, a short fighter like Alexander who lacks huge punching power.