By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) is quite pleased with the contract that he got from Top Rank for his April 12th rematch against Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Even though he had go sign a contract extension to get a fight that he probably would have still gotten had he stood firm in his negotiations, Bradley feels he got a good deal with the contract. He’s not saying how many years and fights he had to agree to get the rematch against the 35-year-old Pacquiao, but if it’s more than 2 years, then Bradley will be pretty much finished as a fighter by the time his contract ends with Top Rank unless he somehow ages gracefully like Bernard Hopkins. He’s 30 now, and it’s difficult to picture the light-hitting Bradley being able to compete against the top 147 lb. fighters in another 3 years, if that’s how long his contract extension is with Top Rank.
“Both sides agreed to fight verbally and I agreed to the contract extension verbally as well,” Bradley said to Fighthype. “I just want to thank Top Rank, man, for basically everything that they done; thank Top Rank and definitely HBO. They gave me everything I asked for, so I can’t complain. I’m happy with the terms and satisfied with it.”
It’s amazing and also quite sad that Bradley feels that he got a great deal in getting the Pacquiao fight when he received only $6 million for the fight after asking for $10 million. It’s also kind of sad that Bradley thinks he got a great deal when he re-signed with Top Rank to get the fight. Like I said, Bradley would have likely gotten the Pacquiao rematch if he refused to re-sign with them.
The deal will work well for Bradley only if he can get at least another 2-3 more fights against Pacquiao after their April 12th fight. Re-signing with Top Rank will be a great deal if Bradley get end up fighting Pacquiao 4-5 times like Juan Manuel Marquez did. But if all he’s getting is this one fight with him, then it might not be such a great thing, because he’d be looking at fighting the likes of Mike Alvarado, and Brandon Rios, and possibly Juan Manuel Marquez until his contract runs out. I doubt that Bradley will ever fight Mikey Garcia, because I have a feeling he’ll get the Pacquiao fight and get knocked out, and decide to move back down to super featherweight rather than suffer additional knockout losses against other welterweights.
Having Bradley with Top Rank may not help them if Bradley is knocked out by Pacquiao in April. Bradley’s shelf life doesn’t appear to be that good right now, because he doesn’t have the power to stay at the top for any length of time. If Bob Arum matches him up against Ruslan Provodnikov again, Bradley will take another beating and will likely be knocked out, even if he runs. A Bradley-Marquez rematch is a toss up fight, because Marquez will train for power next time and he’ll check Bradley’s chin many times in the fight. I can’t see Bradley winning that fight. As such, Top Rank could soon be stuck with a fighter with a sagging career by this time next year if Bradley gets beaten by Pacquiao, Marquez and Provodnikov in rematches in 2014.
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