Randall Bailey Injured, Out Of September 8 Bout With Devon Alexander

It looks as though the quite annoying counter-programming nonsense between HBO and Showtime on September 8 is no longer quite as big of an issue. Randall Bailey has suffered a back injury that has forced the promoters to postpone the fight to a later date.

Via Boxing Scene:

"He hurt his lower back and hopefully he won't be out for very long. He felt it last night. He had hoped that it would resolve itself when he woke up this morning. He went to specialist this morning and he was told that he couldn't have any activity for about a week. He should be able to get back into the gym in a week or two. He's going to see the doctor again in a day or so. This is not projected to be any type of a long-term injury," DiBella told BoxingScene.com.

The fight will be moved to either October 20th or 27th with either date turning the Showtime broadcast on that date into a triple header. The 20th is the Garcia/Morales rematch while the 27th is headlined by Mares/Moreno. Adding Bailey vs. Alexander to either of those triple-headers would make for an extremely strong show.

The September 8 broadcast will go forward with Lucas Matthysse against Ajose Olusegun in the main event role. Boxing Scene seems to think that J'Leon Love's fight will get bumped up to the broadcast.

One of the better aspects about the Bailey/Alexander fight getting moved is that it wasn't going to draw well in Las Vegas, but Bailey and his team fought to keep the fight out of Devon's home base of St. Louis. Of course, that ignores that you now have Matthysse vs. Olusegun main eventing in the Hard Rock, and that's not going to exactly set the gate on fire.

But, in the end, we get a ShoBox on the 8th which is less attractive, freeing everyone up to be enthralled by the "great boxing technique" of Andre Ward vs. Chad Dawson on HBO, while one of the late October cards becomes a gem.