By Allan Fox: Former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (23-1, 13 KO’s) did a good job of out-boxing the limited slugger Marcos Maidana (31-3, 28 KO’s) last Saturday night in winning a 10 round unanimous decision in an HBO televised bout in front of his home fans at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Alexander, 25, was moving up in weight to welterweight and did a good job in a fight that he really needed to win impressively to make up for his loss to Timothy Bradley last year and controversial decision wins over Lucas Matthysse and Andriy Kotelnik.

Using a punch and grab technique made famous by guys like John Ruiz and Bernard Hopkins, Alexander was able to get off his punches first and then immediately smother Maidana’s offense before he could get it ignited. It may not have been exciting to watch but it was very effective for what it accomplished. Since HBO will likely continue to show Alexander’s fights as long as he’s still winning, the question now is whether Alexander can progress to become a superstar at welterweight or will he have to settle for being another Andre Berto type of fighter that has a following but isn’t considered a huge star.

For Alexander to get to the next level, he may need to make his style of fighting a little more crowd pleasing because he tends to do a lot of grabbing on the inside. If Alexander could tweak his style to where he’s not hanging all over his opponents 24/7, he might not be a bad fighter to watch. But right now, Alexander is eyesore due to all that god awful grabbing he’s been doing. It wasn’t just this fight. If you look at all the grabbing Alexander did in his loss to Timothy Bradley last year in January, you’d think Alexander was part of Bradley’s fighting gear that he wore for the fight because Alexander was draped on Bradley all night long. A good referee would stop that habit in a second by giving Alexander warnings followed by point deductions, but he’s getting away with it much in the same way Amir Khan has been getting away with shoving and pulling down on the heads of his opponents forever without losing points until his last fight against Lamont Peterson.