St. Louis to stage title tripleheader

Published Jul. 14, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Don King is putting on a title triple-header in St. Louis.

The Hall of Fame promoter will have IBF junior middleweight champion Cory Spinks defend his belt against Cornelius Bundrage on Aug. 7 at the Scottrade Center, on possibly the deepest card that King has staged in years.

The headliner is WBC and IBF junior welterweight champion Devon Alexander, who will fight former titleholder Andreas Kotelnik in the main event. IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud will face the former holder of that belt, Glen Johnson.

''Many sports writers have been lamenting that other promoters do not present top-to-bottom stellar cards like I have always done, and they are exactly right,'' King said Tuesday.

It's not the first time that the bombastic King has made good on his promise to deliver comprehensive cards. In 1993, Julio Cesar Chavez headlined a show in Mexico City that included four world title bouts and drew 136,274 fans to Estadio Azteca.

Twice, King has promoted cards with six world-title fights.

Alexander (20-0) is considered one of the most talented fighters pound-for-pound in the world, with a broad smile and compelling back story about surviving the tough Hyde Park section of North St. Louis. Of the 30 kids who started out boxing with him, at least eight have been killed and another 10 have spent time in jail, including Alexander's brother.

He had wanted to fight Marcos Maidana, but it never came to fruition and Alexander instead turned his sights on Kotelnik (31-3-1), the only man to beat Maidana.

Kotelnik hasn't fought since losing his title to Amir Khan last July.

The light heavyweight bout between Cloud (20-0) and Johnson (50-13-2) was supposed to take place April 10, but Cloud backed out of the fight citing an injury. He eventually signed with King, allowing the fight to be added to the card.

The Spinks-Bundrage championship fight was supposed to headline a card scheduled for June 12 in St. Louis, but King called it off because of tepid interest and the fact that he didn't want to promote two cards in the same city so near to each other.

Spinks (37-5) will have Buddy McGirt in his corner for the first time when he defends his title against Bundrage (29-4), his mandatory challenger who is trained by Hall of Famer Emanuel Steward. Spinks won the belt at the Scottrade Center in April 2009, when he survived a tough fight against cross-town rival Deandre Latimore.

''I have read where other promoters are now saying they are attempting to build cards like I do,'' King said. ''Well, St. Louis, I want you to know that I've already put three world championships on my upcoming Scottrade Center card, and I'm not done yet.''