On Saturday August 7th Don King Productions will present the potentially explosive card “Gateway to Greatness” from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Where Hometown hero Devon Alexander “The Great” (20-0, 13 KOs) will defend his title against former super lightweight champion Andriy “Kotelya” Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KOs), from Lviv, Ukraine, In the Co-main event IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris “Thunder” Cloud (20-0, 18 KOs), from Tallahassee, Fla., will face 2004 Fighter of the Year Glen “Road Warrior” Johnson (50-13-2, 34 KOs) form Clarendon, Jamaica. Also on the un-televised portion of the card St. Louis King Cory “Next Generation” Spinks (37-5, 11 KOs) defends his light middleweight title against former “Contender” Cornelius “K9″ Bundrage (29-4, 17 KOs) in a 12 round fight.

This card has been set up as launching pad for the young champions to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in their respective divisions. Both Alexander and Cloud have a hard test in front of them as they face former world champions in Johnson and Kotelnik.

Both Alexander and Kotelnik have a common opponent in former Champion Junior “Hitter” Witter which Kotelnik challenged back in 2005 while Alexander fought him just 2 fights ago to claim the vacant WBC strap. Both fighters had success against the Brit adapting to his awkward style, making changes when needed and keeping focused throughout the fight. Which will be key for the fighter who will end up being victorious come Saturday night.

Alexander was coming off a KO win over late replacement and over matched Jesus Rodriguez before he stepped in to fight Witter on the undercard of Bradley vs. Campbell fight. Alexander started out using his speed and busy work rate to try and set up his power punches against the slick switch hitter. Alexander did a good job staying focused and not letting Witter’s ackward style frustrate him early on in the fight. The 23 yr. old was giving Witter a lot of angles with his lateral movement giving him success in landing his best punch – the right hand. As the rounds went on Alexander true fighting spirit tries to come out during exchanges and tends to get a little brave which in turns makes him vulnerable allowing Witter to connect with some left hands. His excellent trainer Cunningham does a great job to accurately point out his flaws and provides him simple and precise instructions that Alexander picks up very quickly. Re-focused Alexander gets more comfortable staying busy even though he abandons the jabs at time he was able to rock Witter with a straight left hand a few times during the bout. Towards the end of the bout Alexander was having his way overwhelming Witter with his punch output and landing the cleaner and more effective blows. Witter did not come out for the 9th round citing a left hand injury awarding Alexander the KO victory. Despite the injury you had a sense that Alexander could have stopped the fading Witter as Alexander has been very consistent with his work rate without showing signs of slowing down.

A younger Witter was defending his European belt against the rugged Kotelnik in what many observers thought would be a fairly easy title defense. It Wasn’t. Kotelnik stayed composed and stuck to his game plan not letting himself get discouraged as he was getting out boxed by the speedy Witter during the first half of the fight. But for anyone that has seen Kotelnik’s fights you know that he depends on effective pressure to wear his opponent down then step it up in the later stages of the fight. After the 5th round the fight was fairly dominated by Kotelnik despite what the pro-Witter announcers were saying. Kotelnik’s stiff jab, high guard, and forward style were starting to pay dividends against the visibly tiring Witter, who seemed to be in survival mode. Kotelnik’s consistent pressure and great stamina allowed him to be very mobile as he kept his punches landing mixing it up nicely with combinations to the head and body. “It’s not Witter losing the rounds BUT Kotelnik winning the rounds” said one of the announcers during the telecast and I couldn’t agree more. Kotelnik has stamina, patience and is a very accurate technician, a combination that none of Alexander’s opponents have been able to provide.  That type of game planning has carried him to 31 victories in 35 fights and earning him the WBA championship belt along the way. But Alexander is a very talented and busy fighter who likes to mix it up, Kotelnik needs to make him sit and trade to raise his chances of dethroning the St. Louis product.

Overall this is an interesting matchup of styles that can be very entertaining and could have a potentially explosive ending. The key for Alexander to win is to simply  out box the slower Kotelnik to the point of inactivity like Amir Khan did a little over a year ago. Alexander has been more consistent with the jab over his last three fights and he needs to keep improving in order to set up a similar power shot that knocked out a one dimensional Juan Urango. For Kotelnik to win he needs to apply effective pressure and throw multiple jabs to set up combinations to the body and head in order wear down the young champion. Kotelnik needs to try and rough Alaxander up by staying in close, holding him, push him against the ropes and anything else in order to get him out his comfort zone. Another aspect of the fight is that Kotelnik can take a punch as proven by the shots he took from the heavy-handed Marcos Maidana, he needs to find out if Alexander can do the same. Kotelnik has to like the recent trend of young stars not beign able to respond to adversity as most recently proven by Brooklyn’s Daniel Jacobs in his KO loss. He just needs to hope Alexander can fall into that category with the help of his right hand.

As expected Alexander is the favorite to win like so many promising fighters were before but that’s what makes this sport so engaging; anything can happen and most of the times it does.

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On a side note, Alexander being good friends with Cory Spinks is following in his footsteps in putting a show for his hometown fans by inviting recording artist Drake to perform during his ring entrance. Alexander supporters are hoping he doesn’t mimic Spinks too much, as all of St. Louis remembers what happened to Spinks when Nelly led the way to the ring.

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In the bout before HBO starts its televised coverage Cory “Next Generation” Spinks (37-5, 11 KOs) finally squares up against Cornelius “K9″ Bundrage (29-4, 17 KOs). This could be an entertaining bout if a couple of things happen, First, Bundrage has to be active with his punches and if Spinks has lost some of his elusiveness he will have to stand and fight. Spinks is a very slick southpaw coming off a very competitive split decision win against fellow St. Louis native Deandre Latimore. Spinks is by far the more experienced fighter at the elite level of the two but at 32 the wear and tear of his 42 fights might start to show up. Making matters worse, since 2006 Spinks has only fought 5 times while Bundrage has fought 11 times, Bundrage has to take advantage of this inactivity by putting the pressure on Spinks. Bundrage has to take a page from Latimore’s book and try to land something big early to get Spinks out of his comfort zone. Spinks has to be the clever boxer that gave him some of his biggest wins over the likes of Zab Judah, Roman Karmazin and Jermain Taylor. This fight is gonna come down to who wants it more and a loss to any these fighters will be a major setback.

1. Alexander does enough to beat Kotelnik, Cloud decisions Johnson
2. WBC/IBF champ Alexander gets Kotelnik in next defence