By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) won’t be able to defend his title for the first time at Madison Square Garden this December 15th, because that venue is already booked for that date. Bradley’s promoter Bob Arum is now looking at putting him some place else for the same date.

Bradley is still deeply disappointed that Manny Pacquiao didn’t want to fight him again. Bradley had waited around hoping that the Filipino’s pride would get him to take the fight to try and avenge his 12 round decision loss to Bradley from last June but that’s not going to be the case. Pacquiao chose instead to fight Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th, and that’s who Arum wanted Pacquiao to fight instead of Bradley.

Bradley told RingTV “I wanted to be able to beat him convincingly without any controversy. That’s all I wanted.”

Bradley felt that a second win over Pacquiao would be enough to quiet all the critics out there who questioned his victory over Pacquiao. Unfortunately, Bradley’s not going to get that chance to face Pacquiao again and the chances are fairly high that he never will. The only thing that Bradley has going for him is that he fights for Top Rank, and Arum often likes to keep his fighters facing each other. Bradley might possibly get another shot against Pacquiao if Arum isn’t able to find an opponent that will bring in bigger money. If Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto both say no to a Pacquiao fight early next year, you can bet that Arum will look to set Bradley up with Pacquiao again unless Arum decides to go with Marquez for a 5th fight.

Ruslan Provodnikov is being mentioned as the guy that Bradley will likely fight next. Provodnikov is a light welterweight, not a welterweight.