Kevin Cunningham, the trainer for St. Louis boxer Devon Alexander, hesitated to provide the full game plan for opponent Andriy Kotelnik heading into tonight's championship fight at Scottrade Center.

"But I'm going to give you one little hint," Cunningham said. "From the opening bell, we're going to start early. The fans are not going to have to sit around and wait. There's not going to be a dull moment in this fight. We just plan on going out and jumping on this guy. And if he deals with it, he deals with it. We'll see ..."

The answer will come late tonight, as Alexander puts his World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation 140-pound titles on the line against Kotelnik, a Ukrainian.

The 12-round bout is the main attraction in the "Gateway to Greatness" event and will follow a fight between Tavoris Cloud and Glen Johnson for the IBF light heavyweight title, which begins shortly after 9 p.m. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

On Friday evening, the boxers dropped by Kiener Plaza for the official weigh-in, which drew a decent crowd downtown. Legendary boxing promoter Don King blasted away on the microphone, boasting that the St. Louis Rams will be attending the fight, along with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and possibly Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

What King didn't say, but what Scottrade Center announced through a press release Friday, is that boxing greats Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Floyd Mayweather are expected to be in attendance.

That may or may not happen, but what will take place is Alexander (20-0, 13 knockouts) vs. Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KOs). Alexander weighed in at 138 3/4 pounds on Friday, and Kotelnik narrowly edged that at 139 1/2 pounds. Kotelnik, who is 5 feet, 7 1/2 inches tall, has a half-inch height advantage.

"We're ready to rock 'n' roll," Alexander said. "We've got plenty of plans for him. We've got an A game, a B game, a C game, whatever he brings to the table, we're going to be able to handle it."

Kotelnik kept fairly silent this week as he prepared to try to wrest away Alexander's two belts.

"What can I talk about?" Kotelnik said. "I'm ready for the 12 rounds, and on Saturday, the fight is going to show who is the best fighter in the world."

His camp, however, wasn't so quiet.

Pavel Govzman, Kotelnik's counselor and translator, believes Alexander is looking past tonight's fight and ahead to a potential matchup with undefeated light welterweight Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KOs). That fight, should it materialize, could be a huge payday for Alexander.

"Devon Alexander is a great guy, but they are already talking about the next opponent and that (Kotelnik) is like a nobody, a little road bump," Govzman said. "So I think that could be a mistake ... costly."

Alexander wasn't biting on that one.

"That's what they think," he said. "We don't go to camp for seven weeks to look past anybody. If that's the case, we could have stayed back here in St. Louis and do what we do in the gym" as opposed to running the Las Vegas mountains for eight weeks.

"We always take everybody serious and don't look past nobody. I always know (Kotelnik) is a solid fighter. I respect him, but you have to understand, I'm ready to work."

One aspect to watch tonight will be the strength of Alexander's punches. Already known as a speedy jabber, he's now added some oomph.

"Oh yeah, he's growing," Cunningham said. "He's 23 years old, and he's starting to really mature into that 'man strength' as we call it. He's going to be fast, strong and explosive."

Alexander and Kotelnik have a common opponent in former champion Junior Witter. Kotelnik lost to Witter in 2005, while Alexander defeated him last August, as the southpaw rocked Witter with a left in the fifth round and then watched him throw in the towel after the eighth.

Even so, Kotelnik's trainer, Stacey McKinley, said his fighter isn't worried about facing the southpaw tonight.

"A lot of people don't understand — a southpaw is only good from a distance," McKinley said. "If you get right up on him, he's not a southpaw anymore ... he's just a regular fighter."

Cunningham replied: "It doesn't matter whether Devon is a lefty or a righty. The bottom line is, I have the better fighter."

That will be determined tonight.

"It's going to be a hell of a fight, a Saturday night Fish Fry, and we're having mud-cat," McKinley said.

Cunningham countered again: "All I can say is, to all the fans in St. Louis, don't miss the 'Destruction of the Evil Russian.'"