Timothy Bradley: The Quiet “Desert Storm” – Patiently Waiting
Written By: Jasveer Singh Gill
As the big dogs of boxing circle and sniff at each other, one champion is sitting back, biding his time, waiting for an opportunity. And now, his moment may have arrived.
Timothy Bradley, once ridiculed for avoiding a fight with Amir Khan, may now be the most viable opponent for Manny Pacquaio, Juan Manuel Marquez and perhaps even Floyd Mayweather.
The Ring magazine’s current light-welterweight champion, the Californian remains the undefeated WBO champion at the weight. A recent signee of Bob Arum’s Top Rank promotions – the promotion company of the likes of Pacquaio and Miguel Cotto – his victories make him standout as possibly the most deserving contender to land a super fight against one of the premier fighters around his division.
It is all so different from just over a year ago, when Bradley was labelled a ducker, having openly turned down two separate big money offers from Amir Khan’s team. Although not too open about it, Bradley was waiting out his contract with Gary Shaw Promotions to sign with Top Rank. An example of the difference his new promotional company has made to his career is evident in the offer he turned down from Amir Khan. The negotiations through Shaw and team Khan left Bradley with an alleged guaranteed $1.4 million payday, which many claimed he was a fool to turn down. Upon signing with Top Rank Bradley fought the much less threatening former champion Joel Casamayor on the undercard of the Pacquaio-Marquez III fight. This fight saw him getting paid an alleged $1.2million.
Bob Arum is a promoter notorious for creating in-house bouts for his biggest stars, something that is easy to see by looking at the roundabout fights the likes of Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquaio have all had against each other. Therefore Bradley would have definitely had one eye on fighting the likes of Pacquaio or Juan Manuel Marquez (another Top Rank fighter).
Right now, Arum is considering putting Bradley in against either of those legendary names and that in itself would be justification of his choice to avoid fighting Khan. Any payday ever offered by team Khan will pale in comparison to whatever Arum will pay Bradley for his next fight, which at worst could be a rematch with Peterson.
The “Desert Storm” is still deserving of a real super fight against any of these elite names though, despite the fact that Bradley turned the Khan fight down (something which is an actual fact that even he can not deny). Ironically though, after all the heckling Bradley got for turning the fight down, it was Khan’s struggle against former Bradley victim Lamont Peterson that showed the world the quality of Bradley. That loss by Khan saw Bradley jump up the pecking order of fighters deserving of the chance to take on the likes of Pacquaio or Mayweather.
Bradley became champion by going to England to face the highly avoided and awkward Junior Witter. He came away winning a decision and never looked back, running through undefeated and highly reputable contenders such as Devon Alexander, Luis Abregu, Kendall Holt, Edner Cherry and of course Peterson, winning clear decisions in all those fights.
The likes of Peterson and Alexander have gone on to win big fights since, proving just how good his wins against them really were. An aggressive fighter, known for his bustling approach and frequent use of his head (see his fights against Alexander and Nate Campbell), even Freddie Roach has stated Bradley is a definite contender to face pound-for-pound king Pacquaio.
If he does not end up fighting Pacquaio, Arum is sure to use him against Marquez, giving him the opportunity to rise up the fabled pound-for-pound rankings, with Bradley currently being rated around 5-10 in the world by most boxing pundits. Mayweather is also running out of viable contenders, with only Pacquaio, Cotto and Bradley now left as opponents he could fight without being seen as cherry picking.
Before Valentines day both Pacquaio and Mayweather are expected to have named opponents for their next fight. If they do not fight each other, they could do no better than taking on the best undefeated fighter around the welterweight division.
Of course, the fight with Khan will always loom over his head, especially once Khan gets back to winning ways. However, Bradley has gone on record as saying that he is not scared of Khan and knows they will eventually come to fight one day. Now that Peterson has shown a blueprint for a style that Khan seemingly could not effectively deal with, Bradley may not hesitate to sign up, and this time will probably get considerably more than $1.4 million for it too.
Nowadays too many boxers try to get through their careers in a rush but Bradley has taken a more patient approach to his career. In a sport that is all about timing, his decision making may prove to be his best skill of all.
