Purdy fails to make weight for Alexander bout

By Boxing News - 05/17/2013 - Comments

004AlexanderandPurdyIMG_3862(Photo credit: Casino/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: British welterweight contender Lee Purdy (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) messed up his chance to win the IBF welterweight title from champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) when Purdy come in over the 147 lb. limit at 148 lbs on his first try.

On Purdy’s second attempt two hours later he had only dropped a tiny amount of weight as he came in at 147.8 lbs. The fight will still take place.

What this means is that Purdy doesn’t have a chance to win the IBF title even if he beats Alexander tomorrow night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

That’s a definite buzz kill I bet. But it really doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot because it’s not as if Purdy had any chance to win the fight to begin with, because this is a huge, huge mismatch due to the talent that Alexander has going for him.

I have a feeling that Purdy just put a token effort into trying to drop that pound because it’s not hard to lose 1 pound in two hours, and he only lost less than half a pound.

That tells me that he’s focusing instead on just trying to get the win and isn’t worried about the strap. That makes sense because if he Purdy wins the fight, he’s going to get another crack at Alexander’s title because Devon would want a rematch to avenge the loss.

Purdy would then get a second shot at winning the title. Granted, it’s not good that Purdy failed to make weight, because that puts him in a bad position to get a bigger payday in a rematch with Alexander. However, if Purdy did sweat that pound off, he’d likely be much weaker for having done so and he’d just get beaten even easier on Saturday by Alexander.

I think it’s better for him to be bigger so he can at least have a slight chance of winning rather than zero chance.

It is worrisome that Purdy has failed to make weight for his second straight fight. Purdy failed to make weight for his fight last March against journeyman Cosme Rivera. I think it’s painfully obvious that Purdy doesn’t belong at 147 and he needs to move up to 154 and try his luck out in that division.

I can’t see him doing anything at that weight at the world level, but then again I don’t see Purdy doing anything at 147 at the world level. He’s going to get stomped tomorrow night by Alexander, and it’s so, so sad that this fight is the co-feature because the American boxing fans deserve better than this from Showtime.



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