Provodnikov and Peterson options for Bradley if Guerrero fight can’t be made

By Boxing News - 09/28/2012 - Comments

Image: Provodnikov and Peterson options for Bradley if Guerrero fight can't be madeBy Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley and WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero are in negotiations for a fight that will take place on December 15th. Bradley’s manager Cameron Dunkin is saying that if the Guerrero fight can’t get made, then the options will be down to Lamont Peterson and Ruslan Provodnikov, both lighter welterweights.

Bradley’s trainer Joel Diaz sees a fight against the 29-year-old Guerrero as a backwards step in Bradley’s career for some reason. Speaking with mydesert.com, Diaz said “It’s not a fight for Tim, it’s a fight for Robert. Instead of moving forward after being on that stage a couple of months ago, we’re taking a step back fighting Robert Guerrero.”

That no doubt is true, but what Bradley do? It’s not as if there’s fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr, Miguel Cotto or Manny Pacquiao that can happen. I think the Pacquiao fight might have spoiled Diaz a little because of all the attention and the huge cash that fight soaked in. But there’s just not many alternatives like that out there. All the top fighters are to get fights against, and Bradley’s not someone that guys like to fight due to his rough style of fighting, his movement and due to the low pay per view numbers his fight with Pacquiao drew in. At the end of the day, Bradley is essentially no more popular than guys like Provodnikov and Lamont Peterson. I think you can make a strong argument that Peterson has a much larger fan base than Bradley, because at least Peterson is popular in Washington, DC, whereas Bradley has lukewarm popularity in California and Nevada.

Bradley doesn’t have a lot of options right now. It would be great if he could get a fight against Amir Khan at least, but that’s not going to happen because Khan is looking to get an easy win and will probably fight Paul McCloskey next.



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