By Jeff Sorby: The fight between IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) and challenger Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) has been moved from January 19th to March 2nd due to Brook injuring one of his ankles and needing more time for it to heal. The January 19th fight card will still go ahead, but it will be now headlined by WBC interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (32-2, 30 KO’s) defending his title against lightweight Hank Lundy (22-2-1, 11 KO’s) at the Nokia Theater, in Los Angeles, California, USA.
LA Times writer Lance Pugmire said on his social media site “Kell Brook has an injured ankle, posting January 19th bout against Devon Alexander at LA’s Nikia Theatre to March 2nd, Richard Schaefer says. But rest of Jan 19th card at Nokia still on with Lucas Matthysse.”
Besides Matthysse vs. Lundy, the January 19th card has junior middleweight Jesus Soto-Karass facing welterweight Selcuk Aydin in a bout scheduled for 10 rounds.
I like the Matthysse-Lundy bout a lot more than I do the Alexander-Brook bout because the fight promises much more action than what we’ll likely see with Alexander vs. Brook. That’s not that Brook isn’t an offensive fighter, because he surely is. It’s because Alexander tends to fight defensively, especially when he’s fighting a guy with good offensive skills. He could end up clinching Brook all night long if he tastes his power early like he did in his fight with Marcos Maidana in February of this year. Alexander is very hard to beat when he’s using his clinch and grab technique. He’s got it down perfectly to where he can throw a shot and then collapse inward for a quick clinch before his opponents have had an attempt to throw a punch.
The Lundy-Matthysse fight will have a lot of action in, and I see both guys getting hit a lot in this fight. Matthysse is coming off of a 10th round knockout win over Ajose Olusegun in an exciting fight, whereas Lundy just finished losing his last fight to Raymundo Beltran last July.