By Yannis Mihanos: It seems that controversy and Tim “Desert Storm” Bradley (35-1-1-1) have finally become one and the same thing.
I might as well call him from now on Controversy Tim or at least he should consider changing his nickname to “Controversy”.
I really don’t know how Bradley manages to put himself into trouble every time, but he certainly has something special going on with it.
The problems for Bradley started in that fatal night of 2012 against Manny Pacquiao, and since then always in his fights there is some kind of trouble.
For this fight, Bradley came as the underdog to fight a young gun in the name of Jessie “The pride of Las Vegas” Vargas (now 26-1, 9 KOs).
Vargas came in the ring with a new coach on his side, the famous “El Terrible” Erik Morales.
Until now Tim Bradley has been into wars that no one can forget, especially his fight against Ruslan Provodnikov.
The opportunity that arose to fight again for a world title couldn’t be passed so easy by him. This was his opportunity to stay in the league with the top guys.
On the other hand for Jessie Vargas this was the first time to be fully tested against someone known, experienced and equally hungry to win.
Bradley’s strategy was simple: be the aggressor of the fight, hurt and intimidate Vargas as he felt that it was the only way to upset and defeat him. Even if in his career has never been the big puncher or knock out artist.
Still, with his reputation accumulating as a fighter who loves to brawl, he decided to come in with this intention.
Vargas was the much taller guy and could have used his height and long reach as an advantage. During the rounds his coach Eric Morales could be heard urging him to attack and unleash more combinations. But it proved easier said than done.
Bradley used to big fights, hit Vargas often in the head and in the body and even if the reaction of Vargas was to smile it was evident the frustration and malfunction to his game and mind plan.
Vargas and even bigger fighters like Gennady Golovkin are not used to be first attacked and hit .Usually this is their job.
So with the roles turned it was inevitable that the match would turn towards the favor of Bradley.
Similar strategy towards a brawler we saw last June, Chris Algieri tried to do the same tactic against Amir Khan but with not very good success.
Algieri got caught more than he could catch and in the end lost in a close but fair fight.
Bradley was intelligent enough to move and elude many of Vargas’ big punches for most of the match accept of course the last round.
In the last round is where all controversy started and accumulated. There Bradley almost blew everything.
As I said in the beginning, Bradley seems to attract controversy on his path. And there in the last round very close to the end of the fight (with 10 seconds left) Vargas caught him with a big right hand that rocked him so much that suddenly a stoppage win floated in the air as a possible outcome.
When the referee stopped the fight Vargas celebrated as if he had won. But the experienced referee was quick to admit his mistake and allow the judges to decide for the winner.
It seems that Bradley felt the need to finish in style, because there was no real reason to engage until the last second, he could have moved and avoided Vargas, his coach told him the same thing that he was winning comfortably in points.
But in the back of his mind he was itching’ for something bigger than just a victory in points he wanted that damn knockout. He wanted it badly but what happened was just about the opposite.
The possibility for these two (Bradley and Vargas) to meet again is very much likely.
Bradley accepted immediately the request of Vargas for a rematch and now is up to their mutual promoter Bob Arum to decide.
Will Bradley continue to spark controversy in his next fight? That will be no surprise at all.
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