By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is saying that slugger Marcos Maidana (31-2, 28 KO’s) and former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (22-1, 13 KO’s) have agreed to fight in a bout that will take place at welterweight instead of light welterweight.

The fight obviously won’t have Maidana’s World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight title on the line. According to RingTV, Schaefer says the fight will take place in either January or February 2012. No venue has been decided as of yet, but Maidana would do wise to make sure the fight doesn’t take place in the 24-year-old Alexander’s home city of Saint Louis, Missouri, where Alexander has won two controversial decisions in the past year against Andriy Kotelnik and Lucas Matthyse.

A lot of boxing fans, this writer included, saw Alexander losing both of those fights, yet he was given the decisions at home. If Alexander had lost those fights, he’d be coming into the Maidana fight having lost his lost his last three fights. After his last controversial decision over Matthyse last June, Alexander said he was moving up to the welterweight division because it’s draining him trying to make the 140 pound weight limit for the division.

That sounds good, but we’ll have to see if Alexander is any different at welterweight. My guess is he’ll be the same fighter. Alexander really hasn’t beaten anyone other than an old Junior Witter, Juan Urango, DeMarcus Corley, Kotelnik and Matthysse. And as I said, the wins over Matthysse and Kotelnik were controversial.

Schaefer said to ringtv “I am currently working on the date and the network to get that done. It’s another toe-to-toe battle, so it’s the kind of fight that we want to do. We just want to do great fights.”

Maidana has been involved with pretty much nothing but great fights. In the past year, Maidana has beaten Victor Cayo, Erik Morales, DeMarcus Corley and Petr Petrov. Last December, Maidana lost a 12 round decision against Amir Khan in a fight where Maidana seemed to be battling both Khan and referee Joe Cortez after Maidana had hurt Khan. It was a very strange fight once Maidana has Khan hurt.

If the fight doesn’t take place in St Louis, Maidana should win this fight without too many problems. Alexander isn’t a very good inside fighter and Maidana really excels in close. He’ll wear Alexander out and as long as he stays close to him, Maidana should do more than enough to get the decision. But he’s got to make sure he picks a neutral venue. He doesn’t want to do what Matthysse did and risk going to Alexander’s home city and put himself in the position where he may need a knockout to win.