Devon Alexander looking to impress against Soto Karass on Saturday

By Boxing News - 06/18/2014 - Comments

alexander5654By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander 25-2, 14 KO’s) will be trying to erase the image of his last defeat at the hands of Shawn Porter when he goes into the ring this Saturday night against Jesus Soto Karass (28-9-3, 18 KO’s) in a 12 round fight at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Alexander has always been a boxer that likes to work on the inside, jab a lot, and clinch frequently. But in his last fight, he went up against a guy with far superior inside fighting skills than himself in Porter, and he wasn’t able to clinch to shut Porter down like he’d done against guys like Marcos Maidana and Lucas Matthysse. Alexander ended up taking a one-way beating for 12 rounds in losing his title last year in December.

Alexander is hoping that if he looks good enough against Soto Karass, fans will see him as the same fighter who had impressed in wins against Maidana, Lee Purdy and Randall Bailey.

“I’m ready to make a statement,” Alexander said via Dan Rafael of ESPN. “This is a statement fight for me coming off of a loss. You know I don’t like to lose. My whole career I’ve been a winner, and when I lose I come back even better. So, I’m looking forward to fighting on [Saturday] and making a statement.”

Alexander was beaten by Tim Bradley in 2011 in a fight where Bradley took the fight to Alexander on the inside and ended up roughing him up to the point where he seemingly quit in the 10th round after getting head-butted. Alexander says he wasn’t quitting, but the way he took too long recover after the head clash, it gave some boxing fans the impression that Alexander couldn’t handle it anymore and wanted a way out of the fight. He was hopelessly behind on two of the judges’ scorecards and would have needed either multiple knockdowns or a knockout to win the fight.

Alexander will need to put in a superb performance against Soto Karass for boxing fans to take notice, because Soto Karass is already coming off of a stoppage loss to Keith Thurman in his last fight, so it’s not as if Alexander will be facing someone unbeaten in this fight,



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