By Dan Ambrose: Up until now, WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) has mostly fought guys his own size more or less. On July 17th, that all changes. The 26-year-old Bradley will be moving out of his comfort zone by moving up in weight from the light welterweight to the welterweight division to take on one of the divisions hardest punchers in a fight against Argentinian Luis Carlos Abregu (29-0, 23 KO’s) at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California.

Bradley is somewhat concerned about Abregu’s power, but not enough for him to truly worry about losing. Bradley expects to be making Abregu miss all night long, and thinks that will keep him ahead in the fight. That might be, but Bradley has always been the type of fighter that likes to stand in close next to his opponents, getting the better of them with his quicker hands as opposed to his bigger shots.

Speed is power, and Bradley’s shots have given some of his opponents problem just for the fact that they’re so fast and hard to see. Hopefully, Bradley doesn’t lose some of his speed in moving up to welterweight for this fight. Because without his speed, Bradley will likely be very beatable, especially against a fighter with the punching power like Abregu.

Bradley needs to win this fight to keep himself alive for future mega fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shane Mosley, Andre Berto, Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan. Those are the main guys that Bradley would very much like to fight. None of them want to fight Bradley right now, because he’s not well known enough yet. However, if Bradley can keep on winning, he should be able to make enough of a name for himself to get one of those popular fighters to take him on.

Sometimes all it takes is one big fight against a good opponent to make a name for a fighter and cause the big named fighters to want to fight them. This is why it’s especially important that not only does Bradley beat Abregu, but that he dominates him impressively. He has to make the bigger stars want to fight him, and if he’s seen struggling against a guy like Abregu, it won’t be good for Bradley.

The keys to victory for Bradley is for him to get in and land his fast shots, and then quickly get away before Abregu can land his bigger shots.