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Alexander was busy but innacurate

As a boxing fan, you know it is always going to be difficult for a foreign fighter to beat a hometown fighter in his own back yard. It is almost something you just take for granted, especially when the hometown fighter is the title holder and a touted future superstar of the game. It is clear that Devon Alexander's future plans had already been made before his fight with Andriy Kotelnik on Saturday night and HBO and Don King promotions were ensuring that a Timothy Bradley - Alexander fight would not run into any hitches.

It's the only explanation I can come up with because Kotelnik clearly should have won that fight, even though he went down 116-112 on all three judges scorecards. While watching the fight and knowing how hard it would be for Kotelnik to convince the judges, even though I had him a good bit ahead after 9 rounds I thought the fight was probably about 50-50 at that stage and there was still a good possibility they would deny him of the victory. Then, after he continued to dominate the final 3 rounds I thought SURELY they cannot take this victory away from him, SURELY despite any efforts to sway their scores in Alexander's favour they have to give it to Kotelnik because it's just too obvious that he was the much better fighter.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

The body language of the two fighters said it all in the final rounds. Alexander was tired, battered and bruised. He looked demoralised between rounds. He looked a beaten man. Meanwhile, Kotelnik was energised. He was fresh, his face unmarked. Even when he heard that all three judges had scored the fight 116-112 he was confident that it would be in his favour. The look of shock on his face when Alexander was announced the victor was not engineered, it wasn't faked, it was real. I was shocked in the same way, but it soon turned to anger at another laughable decision to a more marketable fighter. Alexander is young and has a great deal of potential, but he lost that fight.

The punchstats confirm this, despite not showing that Kotelnik also landed the cleaner shots by far. Alexander threw over 300 punches more than Kotelnik but landed 23 less giving a connect percentage of 18% compared to 29% for Kotelnik.

Its not fair because these are people's livelihoods we are dealing with here. Kotelnik went to the USA for the first time and put on a boxing clinic and what happens? Not only does he not get the title that should be his or the scalp of a big name on his resume, he will struggle to get a big payday anytime soon because he has shown he is a dangerous opponent and the big names will be reluctant to face him. Where is the justice? He deserves a rematch but he wont get it. Alexander would be stupid to give him one because he was figured out. Once a counter-puncher figures you out, you're in big trouble.

Devon Alexander proceeded to call out Bradley after the fight, sporting a ready-made t-shirt to do so. Embarrassing given what had gone on before.

One last point I have to make is Harold Lederman's scorecard which read 117-111 in favour of Alexander, possibly one of the worst scorecards I have ever seen. He kept banging on about Alexander being the more active fighter. I would love to ask him since when did throwing punches win you points? Its punches landed that matter. I think HBO should take a serious look at his scoring of that fight.

Alexander gets gift decision against Kotelnik