By Scott Gilfoid: #4 IBF, Lee Purdy (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) failed to make weight last Friday at his weigh-in for his fight against IBF light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) for their fight tonight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Purdy came into the fight one pound over at 148 lbs. By failing to make weight, Purdy will be losing $7,500 from his $150,000 purse. That’s got to hurt I bet because Purdy will likely never get another shot at a world title.
The IBF is the only sanctioning body that has Purdy ranked in their top 15, and if he gets whipped especially bad tonight, he’ll likely be knocked out of the top 15. Once he’s Purdy is out of the top 15, I doubt he’ll ever make his way back there.
That’s bad because the big money is in the title shots, and it looks tonight could be Purdy’s one shot at his 15 minutes of fame. Losing $7,500 is bad, and hopefully Purdy learns from this that he’s got to train harder at managing his weight.
It must have been a real struggle for Purdy to get down to even 148, and I bet he’s going to in the 160s tonight by the time he hits the ring. Being that big could give Purdy his only chance of winning the fight because he’s certainly not going to be able to win by out-boxing the better skilled and much faster Alexander.
Purdy has to put pressure on Alexander, stay close, and try to overwhelm him the way that Tim Bradley did two years ago. Purdy doesn’t have the speed or the inside game that Bradley has, but if there is a way for him to beat Alexander, it would be by using Bradley’s blueprint and following it very closely. If I’m Purdy’s trainer, I’m telling him to stay on the inside for the full 12 rounds to try and rough Alexander up.
At the end of the day, I think Purdy is going to get trounced in this fight, but what do you expect for a replacement opponent.
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