The “Great” in Devon Alexander “The Great” was back in full display last Saturday as the St. Louisan dominated Marcos Maidana to win a unanimous decision in their 10-round welterweight boxing showdown at the Scottrade Center.
In one of the most impressive performances of his professional career, Alexander outboxed, outslugged and outclassed the hard-punching Argentinean in a tremendous display in front of his hometown fans and the national television audience on HBO. That was fun to watch.
It was Alexander’s first professional fight at 147 pounds after he had fought at 140 through his first 23 fights. The added weight seemed to benefit Alexander as he looked bigger, stronger and much quicker in the ring. He landed several power shots against the perplexed Maidana and put him on the deck in the sixth round, although it was ruled a slip. It was a knockdown. On the official scoring cards, Alexander was one point away from posting a complete shutout.
Once again, Alexander showed the moxie of a champion because he entered the ring with so much riding on the line and under so much scrutiny. After suffering his first loss to Timothy Bradley and scoring a controversial split decision of Lucas Matthhysse in his last two fights, this was kind of a moment of truth bout for Devon.
There were many questions about his future and whether he could remain relevant as a championship contender.
Consider all of those questions answered with a resounding “HECK YES!!” In just 30 magical minutes, Alexander transformed himself from someone who was trending downward into a force who is now surging upward with a speeding bullet. He was that good on Saturday.
Even in victory, a very confident Alexander still remained humble in his post-fight interview with HBO’s Alex Kellerman. He noted that at 25, he is still a young fighter who is still striving to get better. He also noted the lessons learned from the challenges of his most recent fights.
Devon Alexander put himself back in the mix as someone who can challenge for championships and be in the conversation for future big-time fights. With renewed confidence after this victory as a welterweight and now fighting under the banner of Golden Boy Promotions, the possibilities for Devon are great.
The St. Louis boxing community and a national television audience got the opportunity to see the best of Devon Alexander last Saturday night.
I look forward to more future greatness.
