On Tuesday night Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced through his official twitter account that Devon Alexander was likely to be his opponent on May 5th.
The news was a shock to many as Robert Guerrero always seemed the most likely opponent and even more so due to the fact that Alexander was due to defend his IBF strap against Kell Brook on February 23rd before withdrawing on Monday night, citing a bicep injury.
ThaBoxingVoice caught up with Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn to discuss the shocking news.
“Can you honestly see Floyd Mayweather fighting Devon Alexander? I just can’t. Same manager [Al Haymon] but shit fight! It’s awful, awful! Two fucking slippery counter punchers!” vented Hearn.
“It’s never ending in the boxing world. Do you know what? Every time you get a bit of good news, you wait for the bad news. That’s all that happens in boxing. I was buzzing with Froch v Kessler; I wake up Monday morning with a spring in my step then boof, email from Golden Boy saying Alexander is out with an injury. I was like fucking hell,” He continued.
However, Hearn isn’t convinced that Mayweather v Alexander will really happen and that it may just be a ploy.
“It might just be to buy more time to see what else is out there. Also, we took DeMarcus Corley to Spain to spar Kell on Friday and they sparred on Sunday for the first time. Let’s just say it didn’t last very long and a couple of hours later Devon Alexander pulls out. I don’t know whether something has got back to America and they are thinking blimey this kid is strong, maybe it’s not as easy as we thought. It’s a bit of a conspiracy theory but you never know. Them choosing Alexander now is probably just a smoke screen, Guerrero will be wanting more money and they’ve gone fuck it we’ll fight Devon Alexander so Guerrero goes, “Fuck me I’ll take the money”.
Lastly Hearn revealed what he sees as the most likely outcome:
“When I originally heard about the withdrawal I just though that it was an expensive fight on that card, obviously the card is bombing, maybe they are just pulling it to pair it up with [Amir] Khan in April. That’s what I though the plan was and I still do”