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by Chris Cella
This Saturday night at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, IBF welterweight champion of the world Randall “The KO King” Bailey (43-7, 37 KO) will be putting his title on the line as he squares off against the speedy Devon “Alexander The Great” Alexander (23-1, 13 KO), as part of an exciting night of championship boxing hosted by Showtime.
This fight is a classic match-up between a heavy handed power puncher in Bailey and a slick boxer in Alexander, and when the two styles clash Saturday night, it should make for an interesting 12 rounds of boxing. Despite Bailey having more than double the fights than his opponent and coming into this fight with the belt, Alexander has gone to battle with three top 10 welterweights in his last three trips to the squared circle (a loss to champion Timothy Bradley and two wins against Lucas Matthysse and Marcos Madaina), and has been exuding confidence leading up to this title fight.
Look for Alexander to establish the pace of the fight early with his in and out boxing, earning points and winning rounds, while Bailey looks to set up his power shots. With the power he unleashes in his hands, he can change the direction of one shot, much like he did in his last fight against Mike Jones.
But against a crafty boxer such as Alexander, waiting round after round to land the money shot may prove to be costly, so Bailey will need to come out of the gate and stay active for three minutes of every round.
“I keep telling everybody that Devon is not the same size as Mike Jones,” said Bailey about having to be more active against a fighter like Alexander.
“They’ve got Mike Jones linked at six feet. He’s a least six one and a half. He’s very hard to reach. Devon is smaller than me. He’s not going to be hard to find. And this is what they don’t understand.”
Confidence in his ability to land on his opponent and do damage is nothing new to Bailey, who has been victorious by way of knockout in all but six of his professional wins.
Despite fighting shorter opponents in the majority of his bouts, Alexander isn’t stressed about the height and power advantage possessed by the bigger and stronger Bailey.
“I don’t see what size has to do with boxing,” said Alexander. “I could be two feet and still come in there and do what I’ve got to do and win the fight, so I don’t see what he’s trying to say or what he’s trying to come up with.
“I’m going to put it like this: It doesn’t matter what Randall Bailey is coming to do, what he’s put out, what I have either. It’s about what I’m going to do to him. I’m going to implement what I’m going to do and we’ll come out of there with the IBF title. That’s the name of the game.”
Come Saturday night the boxing world will see who can execute their style better: the power puncher or the technical boxer.
The world championship night of boxing at the news Barclays Center in Brooklyn will take place this Saturday, October 20. The Showtime Championship Boxing telecast begins live at 8 p.m. Eastern, with an action packed fight card consisting of four world championship bouts.
