By Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) is reportedly bumping heads still with Yuriorkis Gamboa (22-0, 16 KO’s) over the weight for their March 16th fight. The two sides want different catchweight limits and thus far they’ve failed to agree on one that will work for the fight.
The 31-year-old Gamboa wants a catchweight of 143 pounds, which sounds like a good number given that he’s moving up three divisions to take the fight from the super featherweight division. Bradley, however, only wants a small catchweight of only two pounds at 145 lbs.
It’s not much of a catchweight and it’s understand why Bradley is interested in moving down only two pounds when his opponent is already moving up in weight three divisions.
If the two can’t negotiate the fight then it’s unknown who Bradley will fight. He already skipped a December fight date while waiting for one of the big names – Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. – to fall into his lap. Bradley had the opportunity to fight Lamont Peterson for a $2.3 million payday but he turned it down, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. If Bradley refuses to give on the catchweight then he might be out for a little while longer.
Bradley captured the WBO welterweight title with a controversial 12 round decision over Pacquiao last year in June and thus far he’s still not defended the title. The World Boxing Organization will have to start looking at pushing Bradley to make a defense of his title soon because he can’t just squat on the WBO title while turning down fights left and right. He’s got to defend or vacate.
Gamboa has only fought once in the past year and that was his 12 round decision win over Michael Farenas last December. Gamboa was dropped in that fight after walking into a big shots by Farenas. However, Gamboa was able to recover and go on to win a 12 round unanimous decision. Like he frequently does, Gamboa looked vulnerable at times.
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