With the month of December fast approaching, and despite what you may have heard by some local media outlets, at press time there is no site yet for one of the biggest fights in boxing and certainly for Team Alexander.
The matchup of local hometown great Devon Alexander “The Great” and Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley for the WBC, IBF and WBO Junior Welterweight championship belts of the world was first announced for Miami. Then it was supposed to be held in Atlanta. Finally, St. Louis was announced as the site of the championship fight – on Jan. 29 at the Chaifetz Arena.
Alexander’s trainer/manager Kevin “KC” Cunningham told Fanhouse.com on Saturday that St. Louis makes the most sense economically for this fight.
“What this is coming down too is the fact that Timothy Bradley doesn’t have the fan base to economically support a fight of this magnitude, and Devon does have a fan base,” Cunningham said.
“We are willing and ready to go to any neutral site, but (promoter) Don King said the Chafietz Arena is the only site that makes economic sense.”
The Bradley camp is balking about coming to St. Louis to fight in Alexander’s hometown. But, how can a fighter like Bradley who can’t draw flies have the power to dictate where this fight is going?
Cunningham said, “The bottom line is if Tim Bradley is that bleeping scared of Devon, why don’t he just man up and we can move on to something else?”
Cunningham also said this fight would sell out in St. Louis in less than a month, adding, “Where else can this fight do that?’’
Cunningham was concerned that he and his fighter are still not sure where this fight, which is only eight weeks away, will take place.
“We signed those contracts in September, and the promoters haven’t had time to find a site,” he said.
Devon is promoted by Don King, while Bradley is promoted by Gary Shaw.
But according to Shaw, “St. Louis is no longer an option, while Atlanta, Ga. and Detroit, Mich, are.”
The biggest fight on the schedule, which kicks off the 2011 HBO’s Boxing after Dar’ promotion, right now is a house without a home.
Something tells me that this is just the beginning – not only of one of the biggest fights in the last 10 years – but the beginning of a lot of banter back and forth from both camps and both promoters.
