By Dan Ambrose: Now that Tim Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) has beaten Jessie Vargas (26-1, 9 KOs) to win the interim WNBO welterweight title, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya wants Bradley to face Golden Boy fighter, #3 WBO, #6 WBA, #7 IBF, #12 WBC, Sadam Ali (22-0, 13 KOs) next in his first defense of his title.
The 26-year-old Ali has beaten Francisco Santana and Luis Carlos Abregu in his last two fights to put himself in position for a title shot.
“Timothy Bradley vs Sadam Ali next. @HBOboxing @Golden Boy Boxing,” De La Hoya said on his Twitter.
The only way that Ali doesn’t get Bradley next is if the World Boxing Organization decides to order an immediate rematch between Bradley and Vargas to clear up the controversy of the premature stoppage last Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Referee Pat Russell made a blunder when he stopped the fight moments after Bradley was clipped by a right hand by Vargas late in the 12th round. There was still 10 seconds to go in the fight, which was more than enough time for Vargas to nail Bradley with another shot to put him on the canvas if the fight hadn’t been halted early by Russell.
If the WBO doesn’t order a rematch for Bradley-Vargas fight, then it’s still possible for Bradley to steer around the Ali fight if his promoter Bob Arum petitions the WBO to let Bradley face someone they find interesting to fight.
I don’t know who that would be right off hand because it’s not as if the WBO is going to let Bradley put off the Ali fight so that Arum can line up an in house Top Rank fight between Bradley and someone like #4 WBO Brandon Rios. I don’t see the WBO letting Top Rank do that.
Arum was mentioning wanting to match Bradley with Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Gennady Golovkin if either of those fighters were interested in wanting the fight. I have doubts whether Arum was serious about matching Bradley with Golovkin, but I’m sure he was very serious about wanting the Mayweather fight. But that’s not going to happen even if Mayweather did say he wanted the fight.
Bradley fights for Top Rank, whereas Mayweather fights on Showtime. Unless HBO and Showtime were willing to go through the headache to put together another joint telecast like the Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight last May, it wouldn’t happen. But since a fight between Mayweather and Bradley wouldn’t be a huge money affair, I don’t think for a second that HBO and Showtime would agree to it.
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