By Dan Ambrose: Marcos Maidana (31-2, 28 KO’s) is going to really regret his choice of facing former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (22-1, 13 KO’s) in his next fight on February 25th at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.

There a guys that the 28-year-old Maidana does well against, fighters that are slow like him and who don’t move very much. But when Maidana has been put in with fighters that have an excellent jab, good hand speed and an ability to move around the ring a little, Maidana really falters and looks bad.

Alexander, 24, loves to fight slow plodders like Maidana, and seems to have an ability to time their attacks with his right hook. We saw Alexander completely destroy the tank-like Juan Urango last year in March, knocking him out in the 8th round.

Urango is like slightly faster but equally strong version of Maidana and Alexander made it look easy beating him.
The way to beat a fast fighter like Alexander is to use timing to catch him in between punches, but Maidana is an awful counter puncher and doesn’t time his opponents very well.

The only time I saw Maidana succeed in timing an opponent was when he stunned Amir Khan with a looping right hand when Khan was circling around the ring with his hands down. But it took Maidana forever to finally land a big shot, because he he’d been missing Khan with countless right hands in the earlier rounds.

By the time that Maidana did finally land a big shot, he was already near exhaustion because his stamina was fading late in the fight. Alexander has too much power with his right hook for Maidana to be missing all night long, and it could end quickly for Maidana if he misses with a lot of his shots against Alexander.