Tim Bradley wants Mayweather next

By Boxing News - 10/14/2013 - Comments

bradley55By Allan Fox: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) is targeting unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. for his next fight, and he says he’s going to talk to his promoter Bob Arum to see if he can arrange the fight against Floyd. Bradley defeated Juan Manuel Marquez last Saturday night by a 12 round split decision, but instead of that satisfying Bradley, it’s made him hungrier for bigger names and the No.1 name he wants now is Mayweather.

Bradley’s chances of getting the Mayweather fight will come down to whether Arum can somehow work a deal to make the fight happen with Top Rank’s rival Golden Boy Promotions. It’s not impossible because the two promotional companies have worked together in the past for occasional fights, but it’ll still be a difficult fight to put together.

Bradley said to the LA Times “I know about all of it [referring to the Top Rank vs. Golden Boy feud]. I’ll talk to my promoter and my manager and still see if we can make it happen. I want to fight the top dog in boxing. We’ve got to try.”

Even if the fight could be put together, Bradley’s chances of winning would be nonexistent. Mayweather is so far ahead of Bradley in terms of talent that it would be more one-sided than Mayweather’s recent victories over Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. At least those guys had something that could potentially give Mayweather problems in terms of power or in the case of Guerrero, a high work rate.

Bradley doesn’t have have any of those things. He’s essentially a defensive pot shot fighter without much power. The plan that Bradley used to beat Marquez last Saturday where he stayed on the outside throwing jabs and occasional right hands would go nowhere against Mayweather. It would be too simple for him to negate that and give Bradley a real schooling.

Mayweather probably won’t be agreeable to fighting a Top Rank guy like Bradley unless he were to leave that promotional company. That doesn’t seem like something that Bradley is in the position to do. As much as he’d like to face Mayweather and get a huge payday, he’ll probably have to be content with just watching Mayweather fight on television or at ringside like other fans do. He’s not going to get a fight with him, but that’s okay. Bradley has opportunities to fight Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters Manny Pacquiao, Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Those are popular fighters, and he’ll make a lot of money facing them. Bradley wanted to be with Top Rank, and he probably had an idea going in that he would be fighting those guys rather than Golden Boy’s fighters with Mayweather, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Adrien Broner, Keith Thurman and Devon Alexander.

As I said before, Bradley would face defeat for the first time in his career if he were to fight Mayweather. There wouldn’t controversy involved. It would be one-sided. Mayweather is just too good right now, and Bradley doesn’t have the type of weapons that would trouble him.



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