Last night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, Devon Alexander ?The Great? continued his winning ways with a tougher than expected twelve round decision over former champion Andriy Kotelnik. The 116-112 scorecards didn?t reflect exactly how hard the fight was for the 23-year old, as he was often tagged with right hands and had trouble seizing continuous momentum against his more seasoned foe.
Alexander trained for the bout at Barry?s Boxing under the watchful eye of Kevin Cunningham and his conditioning was superb. He needed every ounce of energy to pull out the win over his Ukrainian opponent, who had previously defeated interim WBA Jr. Welterweight champion Marcos Maidana while only losing to the likes of Amir Khan, Junior Witter, and Souleymane M?baye.
Following his win Alexander admitted that the fight was tougher than he expected and called himself his own worst critic. Alexander stated that he would love to get a crack at WBO kingpin Timothy Bradley and that actually is a fight that HBO appears to be eyeing for January 29th, 2011.
In the evening?s co-feature, IBF Light Heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud won a gritty, back and forth battle with former champion Glen Johnson. The fought was fought in closed quarters for the entire twelve rounds and Cloud seemed to have just a little bit more energy and snap on his punches. Cloud will likely be eyeing next weekend?s fight between WBC champion Jean Pascal and Chad Dawson to see what his future holds.
Cornelius ?K-9? Bundrage also produced a surprising TKO victory over Cory Spinks, stopping the local favorite in the 5th round. Bundrage reportedly stormed out of the gates and didn?t give his 32-year old foe any room to breathe, battering him around the ring. Spinks was dropped in round five and despite rising to his feet referee Mark Nelson waived the bout off. Spinks and his trainer Buddy McGirt would later protest the stoppage to no avail.
The Don King Productions? card featured such luminaries as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Evander Holyfield, and members from the St. Louis Rams in attendance.
