Alexander Can Fight Mayweather But Not For The IBF Title

According to the International Boxing federation, Welterweight champion Devon Alexander can go ahead and fight pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr but the IBF title will not be at stake.

Alexander was to have faced mandatory challenger Kell Brook on February 23 but on Monday the American pulled out after sustaining a bicep injury in training. It is the second time the fight has had to be rescheduled. Brook pulled out of their original January 19 date after damaging his ankle.

No sooner had Alexander pulled out of the February 23 date then Mayweather Jr created further confusion on Monday by claiming he was close to signing a deal to fight Alexander at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 4..

The 35-year-old, pound-for-pound king said on his Twitter page: "The negotiations for my fight are almost done. The front runner is IBF Champion Devon Alexander. It’d be a unification bout at welterweight."

But in a statement issued by the IBF on Wednesday, it seems clear that if Alexander wants to face Mayweather Jr then it will have to be as an ex champ.

The IBF statement said: "We have not received any requests or information on this from either camp. Because Alexander is under contract to fight Brook he would not be granted an exception to fight Mayweather."

As reported on Secondsout on Wednesday the only way Alexander could have fought Mayweather Jnr would have been to have got exemption from the IBF within 90 days of his last fight, which took place on October 20,2012.

Whether Mayweather Jr will still want to face Alexander without the IBF title at stake remains to be seen.

The IBF’s decision will come as a huge relief to Kell Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn, who told Sky Sports news:  "If they(Alexander) don’t want the fight, they don’t want the fight. What I won’t let happen is disrupt the career path of Kell Brook.

"I will make sure we fight tooth and nail to get justice for Kell and if that means putting pressure on to get Alexander to vacate the title, or more likely Golden Boy(Alexander’s promoter) to come back this week and give us a new date, which I think is the likely scenario, then we will see what happens.

"I think if I was a gambler, I’d say it will go ahead. The whole thing seems a little bit cheesy to me and a little bit fishy from the Mayweather camp.

"But things change every time you go to sleep in boxing, it’s like a constant chess match and we have to make sure we have our pawns in the right position and make sure we’re ready to go when we get the news."

February 6, 2013