St. Louisian Devon Alexander will finally get to make his first defense of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight championship on Saturday night.
Alexander (24-1 with 13 knockouts) will face 25-year-old Lee Purdy of the United Kingdom in Atlantic City at the world-famous Boardwalk Hall. The fight will be televised nationally on Showtime Cable, beginning at 8:30 p.m. (St. Louis time).
Purdy is a replacement for stablemate Kell Brook, who was supposed to fight Alexander. However, Brook suffered a foot injury and was forced to pull out of the fight. Purdy enters Saturday’s fight against Alexander with a record of 20-3-1 with 13 knockouts.
Alexander figures to be a heavy favorite against Purdy on Saturday, but there may be much more riding on this fight than just retaining his welterweight championship belt.
There has been plenty of speculation in the boxing world that an impressive performance by Alexander could earn him a title shot against pound-for-pound kingpin Floyd “Money” Mayweather, which would undoubtedly be the biggest payday of his career.
Hawks weather Storm
The St. Louis Hawks of the Central Basketball League will face the Middle Tennessee Storm in a huge CBL game on Saturday night at Harris-Stowe State University. Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m.
The Hawks are owned by the Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation. They feature several former area standouts including Phillip Gilbert (East St. Louis/Bradley), Dwayne Polk (Vashon/Saint Louis U.) and Corey Hill (Cardinal Ritter/Northern Iowa).
The Hawks are 5-1 with their only league loss coming to the Storm, who are led by Myles Thrash, who is averaging 32.5 points a game. It should be an exciting contest.
