By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC, #2 WBA, #6 WBO welterweight contender Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) will be facing former two division world champion Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) on December 13th in a 12 round scheduled bout on Showtime at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Presumably this is the big fight that will get the 28-year-old Khan the mega-fight against WBA/WBC 147 pound champion Floyd Mayweather Jr that Khan has been talking about for years now.
The Khan-Alexander fight is a year late, because it arguably should have happened last December when Alexander and Khan were first talking about the fight. But instead of facing Alexander to lock himself into the Mayweather fight, Khan played it safe by sitting on the sofa until May of 2014, at which point Marcos Maidana got the fight against Mayweather instead of him.
Khan fought a fighter from the past in Luis Collazo last May instead of Alexander, and that fight did little to make boxing fans forget about Khan’s 4th round knockout loss to Danny Garcia.
“Oscar De La Hoya says 12/13 on SHO Sports good to go: Amir ‘King’ Khan vs ‘The Real’ Devon Alexander. [Keith] Thurman-TBA & [Demetrius] Andrade-Charlo. Good show. #boxing. The Dec. 13 Khan-Alexander card will be at Mandalay Bay in Vegas. Oscar DeLa Hoya told me he will attend both shows that night for his bouts,” Dan Rafael of ESPN said on his twitter.
Alexander is a reasonable test for Khan, but hardly the one that fans have been pushing Khan to take. Boxing fans want to see Khan really tested by him facing the hard hitting Keith Thurman. Khan vs. Thurman would have been a great fight and true 50-50 fight. With Alexander, it’s still a decent test, because he’s got excellent hand speed and power, but he’s definitely not in Thurman’s class.
Last December, Alexander was soundly beaten by Shawn Porter by a 12 round unanimous decision. Alexander bounced back from that defeat to decision Jesus Soto-Karass by a 10 round last June. Alexander looked good in that fight, but he was facing a very, very slow fighter in Soto-Karass.
The Khan-Alexander fight potentially could be a good one if there’s a quality referee assigned to the fight. Khan has been doing a lot of holding in his recent fights, and if a referee can limit Khan’s holding by taking points off, we could see a decent fight on December 13th. But if Khan is allowed to grab Alexander in head-locks, and pull down on his head all night long like we saw in his fights Collazo and Lamont Peterson, then it’s going to be tough for Alexander to compete. He’s not a good wrestler, as we saw in his fight against Porter.
So if Khan chooses to rough Alexander up with grabbing all night long, then this will be a clear decision win for Khan. Alexander did a lot of holding in his fight against Maidana a couple of years ago, but for the most part, he’s not someone that uses holding as part of his fight strategy.
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