By Rick Reeno

WBC/IBF junior welterweight champion Devon Alexander and manager/trainer Kevin Cunningham are backing the idea of promoter Gary Shaw to stage a 140-pound tournament. Shaw, who promotes WBO champion Timothy Bradley, had a meeting with HBO and outlined his idea for a four man tournament that involves Alexander, Bradley, WBA champion Amir Khan, and Juan Manuel Marquez - if he beats Juan Diaz next month in Las Vegas.

To set the tournament brackets, Shaw proposed a lottery format where the fighters would select the names of their opponents from a hat.

The great concept was a bust. During a recent telephone conference with the media, Shaw claimed that Golden Boy Promotions, who promote Khan and Marquez, were not interested in being involved with the tournament.

"Golden Boy said no. Amir Khan doesn't want to fight anybody. Bradley will fight anybody and to Devon Alexander's credit, he will fight anybody," Shaw said. "We would do it and Devon Alexander would do it."

Cunningham told BoxingScene.com that Alexander would love to take part in such a tournament but he doesn't think it will ever happen. In the alternative, Cunningham is proposing the idea of a doubleheader to further build a unification between Bradley and Alexander. Both champions would defend their titles on the same card and the winners of both bouts would fight within a few months.

Alexander defends his titles against former champion Andriy Kotelnik on August 7, while Bradley makes his welterweight debut against Carlos Abregu on July 17.

"I saw what Gary Shaw said and we support his idea for a 140-pound tournament, but I don't think it's ever going to happen. If Golden Boy doesn't want to do it, then we should do something else. We should have a doubleheader with Devon and Bradley and then have the winners fight each other. Bradley can fight Zab Judah and Devon can fight Humberto Soto. Zab keeps talking about a title shot. He can fight Bradley for the title and we'll fight Soto. They keep saying Soto is having trouble making weight and he wants to move up. He can get his shot at the unified titles," Cunningham told BoxingScene.com.