Purdy ready to pull off upset against Alexander
Huge underdog Lee Purdy (20-3-1) believes he can pull off the upset on Saturday night against IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1) at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey live on Sky Sports HD1.
The Alexander-Purdy fight is the co-feature bout on the Lamont Peterson vs Lucus Matthysse card, however unlike the main event, this one on paper looks a mismatch.
Purdy, 25, stepped in to face Alexander at short notice after Kell Brook's withdrawal through injury.
The former British champion has halted his last four opponents, but he is making a big step-up in class against two-weight world champion Alexander, but Purdy is far from overawed by the highly skilled American.
"Yeah, I'm a big underdog, but I believe I can bring a big upset," said Purdy.
"I believe I've got a good chance. I'm really strong, I can punch hard, I'm tough and durable and I'm out here to win. I'm not here to make the numbers up."
The Colchester man knows he cannot outbox the slick southpaw and must drag Alexander into a dogfight if he is going to create a huge upset.
"Of course I'm going to pressure him. I'm not going to sit on my back foot and outbox Devon, but as long as he doesn't hold me, it will make for a good fight."
Purdy has lost at domestic level. Denton Vassel beat him in a 2010 Commonwealth title thriller and Colin Lynes roundly outboxed him to take the British title. Lee seems to be the kind of fighter whom losses have improved him. But they haven't taken him to Alexander's level.
Alexander, 26, has unified belts at 140 lbs beating top names like Juan Urango and Andriy Kotelnik before suffering his only defeat when a major clash with Tm Bradley turned into something of a misfire and then scraped past Matthysse, He outpointed another hard-hitting Argentine Marcos Maidana over 10 rounds before moving up to welterweight to take Randall Bailey's IBF crown.
Alexander knows he needs to dispatch Purdy to be in the running for a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr for either September or early 2014.
The St Louis star is definately one of the main guys that Mayweather is considering for one of his remaining fights of his six-fight contract. He has five fights left, and Alexander could get selected if he keeps winning. Alexander said when asked about a Mayweather fight "Let me get past Purdy first."
"I don't think he is going to be doing anything we haven't seen already," said Alexander. He's a lesser version of Maidana, but rough and rugged. I don't see too much in him...He's a good solid fighter and I know he'll come prepared, as I will. I go in fights with the mentality of 'lets go get this victory, let's punish this guy and do what we've got to do to get our hand raised'. Of course we want to implement some hurt and that's what we're going to do."