Who wins Alexander-Maidana? The experts weigh in

There are those who say that former WBC/IBF junior welterweight titleholder Devon Alexander has too much skill and savvy for the hard-hitting Marcos Maidana of Argentina heading into Saturday night's HBO-televised welterweight clash at the Scottrade Center in Alexander's hometown of St. Louis, Mo.

Others contend that the sheer will and power of Maidana (31-2, 28 knockouts) will break down Alexander (22-1, 13 KOs), a southpaw boxer-puncher whom some believe has lost his last three bouts.

Alexander lost his WBC junior welterweight belt following an 11th-round technical decision loss to unbeaten Tim Bradley in January of last year, but bounced back with a 10-round decision win over Maidana's hammer-fisted countryman Lucas Matthysse in June.

Before facing Bradley, Alexander struggled through a decision over former titleholder Andriy Kotelnik in August of 2009, and claimed that extreme weight loss contributed to sub-par efforts against Kotelnik, Bradley and Matthysse.

Going in with a record of 25-0, Maidana suffered the first loss of his career to Kotelnik, who outpointed him by narrow split decision in 2009.

Maidana's only other loss was by close unanimous decision against Amir Khan in December of 2010, in which Maidana had to rise from a first-round knockdown that resulted from a body blow.

Maidana is coming off a fourth-round knockout of Peter Petrov in September, his second straight win since losing to Khan, and, prior to that, was credited with a majority decision over Erik Morales in April that many believed Morales won.

Maidana and Alexander share another common opponent in southpaw DeMarcus Corley, against whom Alexander scored a unanimous decision victory in January of 2008, while Maidana did the same in August 2010.

So who wins on Saturday night?

RingTV.com broach the subject with 15 boxing aficionados, the results of which are below.

Mike Coppinger, RingTV.com/USA Today

Devon Alexander MD 10 Marcos Maidana: Marcos Maidana will give Devon Alexander hell, much like his Argentine counterpart Lucas Matthysse did last year. But once again, the 10-round distance and hometown judges will favor Alexander considerably.

I expect Maidana to win the fight on the scorecards of most pundits, but will get the short end of the stick on the official cards. Expect Maidana to drop Alexander and have him seriously hurt a few times. Unfortunately, he will need a knockout to get a draw.

Gareth Davies, The Telegraph

Devon Alexander W 10 Marcos Maidana: Devon Alexander has the edge in boxing skills over Marcos Maidana, and may have to weather an early storm from the Argentine. If he comes through it, his pedigree will see him nick the rounds.

Andre Dirrell, super middleweight contender

Devon Alexander W 10 Marcos Maidana: I'm picking Devon Alexander to win. I think that, for the most part,  Alexander is going to beat Marcos Maidana to the punch for the whole 10 rounds.

But if he applies enough pressure, I think that he has the potential to stop Maidana. If he don't stop Maidana, then I guarantee that he will at least drop him. So I'm going to go with Alexander to win over 10 rounds.