Does Bradley deserve the Canelo fight?

By Boxing News - 11/10/2015 - Comments

1-BradleyRios-8By Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KO) did what everyone thought he would do in beating Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) last Saturday night in a fight televised by HBO. There was no question that Bradley was going to beat Rios in this fight, as he came into the fight as a 5:1 favorite to win.

The real surprise was how easily Bradley won the fight, and how out of shape Rios looked. He had the look of somehow who was totally ill prepared to fight on that night.

With Rios now behind him, the question now is does the 32-year-old Bradley rate a fight against middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) in his next fight? That’s a fight that Bradley’s promoter Bob Arum mentioned recently. He would like to match Bradley against Canelo or Manny Pacquiao. But since there are very few boxing fans who want to see a third fight between Bradley and Pacquiao, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a third fight with these two guys.

If Bradley-Pacquiao isn’t happening, then does Bradley deserve a fight against Canelo? Where does Gennady Golovkin figure into the equation? After all, shouldn’t he be the one who gets the Canelo fight? I could see a scenario where Bradley might deserve a fight against Canelo if the popular Mexican fighter loses to Cotto on November 21st, but definitely not if he beats him.

It would just seem so wrong if Canelo wins the WBC middleweight title at a catch-weight of 155lbs, and then turns around and bypasses Golovkin in order to fight a smaller guy like the 5’6” Bradley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbONIaLELVk

It wouldn’t be fair to Golovkin, and it would make Canelo look like a total cherry picker in making that move. Canelo already has a reputation for fighting smaller guys than him most of his career. Golovkin would be one of the few fighters who wouldn’t be smaller than Canelo if that fight happened. Golovkin would only be a little smaller at 170 compared to the 175lb Canelo.

I could see a case for a Canelo vs. Bradley if we just witnessed Bradley beating the best in the welterweight or the better yet the best in the junior middleweight division. That’s not what we just saw though. We just saw Bradley beat perhaps the 10th best welterweight in the division in Rios, and I don’t even rate Rios as the 10th best guy.

The way Rios looked last Saturday night, It think he would have lost to the majority of the fighters in the 147lb division. But if Bradley had beaten the likes of Shawn Porter, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Kell Brook or Errol Spence, I think he’d at least have sort of a case for him to fight Canelo. Ideally, I’d prefer Bradley prove that he can beat a top 154lb fighter like Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara or Demetrius Andrade to get a fight against Canelo. Do I think Bradley could beat any of those guys? No, I don’t.

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I think Jermall Charlo, who I rate as a much better fighter than his brother Jermell Charlo, would take Bradley’s head off. The same with Andrade, and Lara would be just too big for him. I think Jermell Charlo would destroy Bradley as well. I don’t care what game plan Bradley’s new trainer Teddy Atlas came up with for a fight against those guys, Bradley would lose and lose badly to all of them. He’s not going to beat Jermall Charlo with body punching, holding and running like we saw against a flabby and out of shape Rios.

For me, I don’t want to see a massacre fight between Bradley and Canelo, because it cheapens the sport by having a guy who doesn’t rate fighting one of the best middleweights in the division. I know Canelo doesn’t consider himself a middleweight, but he clearly is a middleweight. If you fight in the middleweight division for two solid years as Canelo has since 2014, and if you rehydrate up to 175, then you’re a middleweight in my book. That means Canelo should be fighting middleweights like Golovkin rather than dipping back down in weight to fight a tiny welterweight in 5’6” Bradley.

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If Bradley wants to fight a middleweight like Canelo, then he should at least prove that he can beat a good welterweight or a good junior middleweight. The last time I checked, Bradley lost to the only good legitimate welterweight he fought in Manny Pacquiao, and I saw him losing both of their fights, not just the second one.



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