Bradley vs. Abregu tonight: Timothy needs to look good

By Jason Kim: Two undefeated fighters will be going at it tonight when Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) puts his unbeaten record on the line against the hard-hitting welterweight contender Luis Carlos Abregu (29-0, 23 KO’s) at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. Bradley, 26, is hoping an impressive win over Abregu will open doors for him leading to big money fights against fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. However, that probably won’t happen, at least not yet.

Bradley will still likely have to move back down to the light welterweight division and try to do his part in cleaning up the division by fighting and beating Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan, Devon Alexander and Victor Ortiz. There’s a good chance that Bradley won’t get the opportunity to fight all of those guys because a fight against Khan will be very tough to try and put together if he’s not showing interest in fighting Bradley. However, Bradley can still become the main guy in the division and become the huge star that he wants to be by beating Maidana, Ortiz and Alexander. Those wins will be enough to make him a big star. It won’t matter if Khan doesn’t fight him because unless Khan is facing the same type of opponents, he’ll likely be marginalized and forgotten by most fans.

Bradley says he doesn’t want to get hit a lot in his fight tonight against Abregu. That makes a lot of sense, because the 5’10” Abregu can really punch hard and also has an excellent jab. Bradley intends on hitting and moving a lot to try and minimize the amount of shots he is forced to absorb from Abregu. One problem that Bradley faces in this fight is that he likely won’t be able to knock Abregu out, because Bradley, 5’6”, isn’t a huge puncher and hasn’t scored a knockout in over three years.

This means that chances are that Bradley will have to fight the full 12 rounds, and take a certain amount of punishment along the way in getting a decision. As small as Bradley is, it’s not a good thing for him to be hit hard for 12 rounds by a big puncher like Abregu. It matters little that Bradley will be able to avoid a lot of the shots; He’s still going to get hit a lot because the fight is probably going to go the full 12 rounds.

I think there’s going to be a lot of chances for Abregu to knock Bradley out in this fight, and while I still see Bradley winning by a decision, I think he’s going to get beaten up a little. Bradley has put on a lot of size and looks pretty thick at 147. It’s all muscle from what I can see. I think this is going to hurt Bradley when he decides to move back down to the 140 pound light welterweight division.

When you put on muscle the way that Bradley has, it’s not easy to trim it off without it affecting your body in a negative manner. It would be sad if Bradley ends up beating Abregu, but not really shining and then having to move down in weight to the light welterweight division where he might struggle. Ideally, Bradley will win in an impressive manner, and then get a big money fight immediately with Pacquiao or Mayweather.

That would be the best possible outcome for Bradley. However, I can’t see Mayweather fighting Bradley now and probably ever. And Bradley doesn’t fight for Top Rank, and has a title that Pacquiao has already won. I can’t see Bradley being chosen to fight Pacquiao anytime soon.

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