By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan’s decision not to fight IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (25-1, 14 KO’s) on December 7th wasn’t much of a surprise because Khan wants the fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and he’s going to wait around to see if he’ll get that big money bout next.
That leaves Alexander making his next defense against the capable Shawn Porter (22-1, 14 KO’s) next month on November 30th at the Freeman Coliseum, in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
It’s a good basic title defense for Alexander. Porter is ranked #7 IBF, #7 WBO, #14 WBA, and he’s coming off of a 10 round unanimous decision win over Julio Diaz last month. Porter looked a heck of a lot better in beating Diaz than Khan did last April.
There’s really no comparison. Khan was knocked down by Diaz, and staggered 3 times in the fight in winning a disputed 12 round unanimous decision. Porter’s victory over Diaz was definitive with him winning by the scores 97-93, 98-92 and 97-93.
If Khan isn’t able to get the fight with Mayweather, then he’s going to end up with egg on his face because he’ll have missed out on a title shot against Alexander, and he won’t have anything to show for it.
Alexander could put himself into position for a Mayweather fight if he can dominate Porter and beat him in an impressive fashion. Porter’s a pretty touch fighter, so it’ll be a nice scalp for Alexander to add to his collection if he can beat him in style.
Mayweather is running out of targets for his last four fights with Showtime and it’s pretty much down to these fighters: Amir Khan, Devon Alexander, Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner and Marcos Maidana. There’s really no other options for Mayweather, and Alexander figures to be an inviting target if he can keep winning.
I’d like to see Alexander face Kell Brook after he gets past Porter and Brook past his next opponent Vyacheslav Senchenko. But it would be a risky fight for Alexander because he can’t afford to lose massive amounts of time if Brook starts getting injured again while training for their fight like he did last time. It might be too much of a risk for Alexander to take the fight, because he can’t sit around for an entire year while Brook heals up from one injury or another.
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