Finally, Looks Like Tim Bradley-Devon Alexander Is A Go

After much flirting, its looking like the highly anticipated young gun showdown at 140 pounds between Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander will reach fruition, on January 29, site TBD.

TSS-EM likes the more battle seasoned Bradley (age 27; 26-0 with just 11 KOs; coming off July UD12 win over Luis Carlos Abregu) to wear down Alexander (21-0 with 13 KOs), the 23-year-old southpaw whose stock slipped slightly when he was tooth and nail with Andriy Kotelnik, before emerging with a UD12 victory on August 7.

This fight was supposed to have taken place by the end of 2010, but Bradley had issues with his promoter Gary Shaw. Shaw wanted Bradley to re-sign with him, extend his deal, before the Is and Ts were made final with Alexander, but Bradley balked. He wanted to entertain offers from other promoters. Alexander went on record busting on Bradley, saying he wanted too much money, and taunting him to just sign already. Shaw found a compromise, securing a deal with broadcaster HBO and Alexander which calls for an automatic rematch. Bradley agreed to that, and likes the money, which will tally over $1 million for each bout.

Automatic, written in stone rematch clauses are quite rare, and risky. If this one ends in a first round blowout for either man, or the styles dont mesh, and we see a 12 round snoozer, the fans desire for a rematch wont be immense.

Alexander, though, has gotten the hype machine cooking as he lobbied to get this bout made. Tim Bradley is all about excuses, he said. Bradley is actually all about constant motion, as I see it. Hell be the slight favorite going in. How do you see this clash, which will determine who the second and third best 140 pounders are, going down? And will we see the winner fight the winner of the Amir Khan-Marcos Maidana clash on December 11th? Or would that battle for acknowledged divisional supremacy, which I see top dog Khan winning, get bogged down in a too-common scenario of promoters seeking to corner the market, by refusing to engage in inter-promotional events?