By William Mackay: WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) is reportedly on the verge of signing with Top Rank Promotions and could be fighting on the November 12th Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez undercard against a fighter still to be determined. Bradley, 28, hasn’t fought since he easily beat Devon Alexander by a 10th round technical decision last January.

He’s been involved with a legal dispute with his co-promoters Gary Shaw and Ken Thompson. However, according to Dan Rafael at ESPN, there could be a settlement soon. In which case, Bradley will likely move on to Top Rank where he could be the next option for Pacquiao if a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. can’t be made with the Filipino star.

Bradley has been considered to be the best fighter in the 140 pound division for some time. Amir Khan has some boxing fans considering him the best with his wins over Zab Judah, Paul McCloskey, Marcos Maidana, Paulie Malignaggi and Andriy Kotelnik. However, Khan is still very flawed and vulnerable, as we saw in him getting batted around by Maidana last December. Khan recently made a 50-50 offer to Bradley for a fight. Bradley decided not to take the fight, which is quite understandable given his circumstances with his legal problems.

Bradley needs to get back in the ring soon if he wants to keep his WBO title. He was already stripped of his WBC strap by the World Boxing Council because he had no plans on defending the title soon. Erik Morales and Pablo Cano will be fighting for the vacant belt this Saturday night on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Victor Ortiz fight. The fight is someone of a joke, as Cano is 21-year-old a fringe contender at best, while the 35-year-old Morales is coming off a loss to Maidana in his last fight in April. The winner of that fight will be considered a paper champion in the minds of many boxing fans, and it’s hard to imagine that Morales or Cano will be able to hold down the belt for any length of time unless they’re carefully matched against beatable opposition for as long as possible.

Bradley will be all alone at the top of the light welterweight division soon with Khan moving up in weight for what could turn out to be a short term experiment. Khan wants to fight at welterweight, but it’s unclear whether he has the chin for the division. If he starts getting knocked out left and right, you can bet he’ll quickly return to the light welterweight division where there are fewer punchers to dodge.