Earlier today I spoke with Kevin Cunningham, trainer of WBC junior welterweight champion Devon Alexander, who confirmed recent reports that his charge?s upcoming unification bout with Timothy Bradley on January 29th will be heading to St. Louis, Missouri, Alexander?s hometown. There are still a few question marks surrounding the contest but it looks like the Chaifetz Arena will play host to one of 2011?s biggest showcases.
?Well it?s always good to be home,? an enthusiastic yet slightly perplexed Cunningham stated. ?We tried to get a neutral location for the fight but obviously the promoters struck a deal and we are now heading to St. Louis.?
Typically a fighter will relish the opportunity to work his craft in front of his hometown crowd but Alexander with that scenario in his last fight on August 7th when he came away with a close decision over Andriy Kotelnik at the Scottrade Center. Cunningham insists that Alexander wasn?t fully in the right frame of mind heading into the fight because he was distracted with other obligations outside of his duties as a world champion.
?There were a lot of distractions in that fight,? Cunningham remarked. ?It was his first time really fighting as a champion in his hometown and he was too busy doing his own promoting and all that. But now we won?t have to worry about that for this fight because people already know who Bradley is so the promoters will be able to focus on doing all of the promoting.?
Asked where he would have personally preferred the fight to be held, Cunningham insists there is no better place that the fight capital of the world.
?I did feel that Las Vegas was ideal. You are talking about one of the biggest fights out there and there isn?t a better place to stage it than in Las Vegas. It’s that type of fight.”
While not being able to land the bout in the area, Cunningham did note that he and Alexander will be arriving in Las Vegas on November 27th to begin another rigorous training camp for the challenge that awaits them, likely at Barry?s Boxing Center right off the strip where they trained for the Kotelnik bout. In an interesting note, interim champion Marcos Maidana is training at the same facility for his December 11th clash with WBA champion Amir Khan at the nearby Mandalay Bay.
Don?t be surprised if Alexander brings in junior lightweight contender Mickey Bey Jr. as one of his sparring partners sometime in December. Bey broke his right hand in his six round decision victory over Eric Cruz on the November 6th Juan Manuel Lopez-Rafael Marquez card but told me that he and his manger James Prince had been talking to Team Alexander.
