By Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) has a big fight this Saturday night against Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s), and the chances are Bradley will come up short and wind up losing this fight on way or another. He’s giving up a lot of speed and power to Pacquiao, and the only thing he has going for him is his heart and his supreme confidence But Bradley feels he’s definitely going to beat Pacquiao, and he’d like to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. so that he can prove who the No.1 fighter is in boxing.
To Bradley, he thinks a win over Pacquiao will prove without a doubt that he’s the No.2 two fighter, but he’d still need to fight Mayweather for the No.1 spot to show fans who the better fighter is.
“Mayweather already knows I will fight him any day and any place. It’s how bad Mayweather wants to fight me,” Bradley said to ESPN. Whether or not I fight him my career is going to go on and my legacy is going to keep on building. Whether he is out there, I am going to keep on winning against the best opponents out there.”
Looking past Pacquiao is a big mistake on Bradley’s part, because he didn’t fight well enough in their previous fight in 2012 for him to assume he’ll beat him in their rematch.
Mayweather would definitely be open to fighting Bradley if he weren’t with Top Rank, but he’s probably not going to face him while he’s still with them. This means that Bradley is going to need to stay in his lane with Top Rank, while Mayweather stays in his lane in fighting Golden Boy Promotions fighters and fighters from other promotional stables.
Bradley has a good thing going with him re-signing with Top Rank. With their stable being quite small in the 140-147lb divisions, it means that Bradley will get additional opportunities to face Pacquiao in the future and make a lot of money. There might not be any point in them facing each other again after Saturday’s fight between them, but they’ll still; likely wind up facing each other again 1-3 times.
Bradley’s legacy will likely hit a wall if he beats Pacquiao, because it’s going to lead to him fighting either Juan Manuel Marquez or Mike Alvarado in his next fight. After that, Bradley will be stuck fighting the guys that Bob Arum has in his Top Rank stable, and there’s not the type of fighters left for Bradley to continue to build his legacy. Arum will likely continue to match him up against Pacquiao, but another win over him will just make Pacquiao look like an over the hill fighter.
Fans aren’t going to give Bradley much more credit if Arum keeps matching him against Pacquiao if he’s perceived as a shot fighter. The only way Bradley’s legacy is enhanced is if he fights Mayweather and all of the top welterweights and light welterweights that Golden Boy Promotions has in their large stadium. Bradley no longer has the chance of fighting any of them now after he re-signed with Top Rank for several more years. Those fights are off the table, and by the time Bradley finishes his contract with Top Rank, he’ll likely be over the hill himself.
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