By Allan Fox: It’s been exactly one year since 33-year-old former 2 division world champion Tim Bradley (33-2-1, 13 KOs) last fought, and he’s saying he’d like to face Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) next, because he feels that would be a good “tune-up” bout for him. The 27-year-old Broner didn’t like being called a tune-up fight for Bradley. Broner tore into Bradley in a profanity laced post on his Instagram site. In a nutshell, Broner said he would beat Bradley up and beat his backside if the two of them fought each other.
“Adrien Broner, I think he’d be a good tune-up,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype.com. “I think that’d be a good tune-up for me, Adrien Broner. Why not? That’ll make a lot of sense. I think people would love to see that. Maybe September sometime,” said Bradley when asked when he’ll be fighting again. “It just kind of happened this way. There’s a reason I had this long layoff. It gave my body time to heal up, and let my brain rest from taking all those blows. I’ve been doing this for 23 years. It’s been a long journey. I can’t wait to get back in there,” said Bradley.
Bradley is not going to get a fight against Broner. He might as well forget that idea. Broner is with Al Haymon, and Bradley is with Top Rank. If the two of them weren’t on opposite sides of the fence, then there would be a chance for that fight to take place, but definitely not now at this time. Bradley re-upped with Top Rank not long ago. You can argue that move by Bradley meant we wouldn’t see him fighting guys like Broner in this lifetime. I think Bradley’s next fight this year will likely be someone in the same Top Rank stable as him like a rematch with Jessie Vargas. That’s a predictable fight. Someone like Chris Algieri is another predictable fight as well for Bradley.
Bradley vs. Broner would be sa perfect fight for both of them, because these guys look like they’re pretty much done in terms of winning world titles. I cannot see either of them winning anymore titles or beating relevant fighters at this stage in their careers. Bradley would likely beat Broner if the fight happened. It would be a hard fight for Bradley, because he hasn’t fought in a year. Bradley hasn’t won a fight in close to 2 years since his win over an out of shape Brandon Rios in 2015.
Broner says he’s going to be fighting in June or July. He doesn’t know who his opponent will be. Broner was previously planning on fighting former WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns. However, that fight went out the window with Burns’ defeat to IBF 140lb champion Julius Indongo this month.
“Now that [expletive] [Ricky] Burns lost, who can I fight,” said Broner on his Instagram.
Broner has some tough choices now that Indongo showed how good he is in his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over Ricky Burns. Indongo doesn’t quite look as good as Terence Crawford, but he’s awfully close to being that talented. Broner would do well to stay far, far away from Indongo. It’s interesting that Broner isn’t calling out Indongo, because that would be the logical fight for him right now. Indongo has the IBF and WBA 140lb titles. Broner can’t avoid the two best fighters in the light welterweight division in Crawford and Indongo. He has to face at least one of them if he wants to show the boxing fans that he’s still a top level fighter. Broner can always move up to 147 to keep the heat off him from why he’s not fighting Crawford and Indongo, but that division is a minefield full of dangerous obstacles for someone like Broner.
Bradley thinks that unbeaten Jeff Horn will have problems in his fight against Manny Pacquiao on July 2. Bradley sees Pacquiao’s left hand power being a hard punch for Horn to take without going down.
“He’s going to feel it, Jeff Horn, because he’s going to be there to be hit,” said Bradley to fighthype.com about Jeff Horn’s fight against Manny Pacquiao on July 2. “Jeff Horn comes forward. That’s what Manny Pacquiao wants. He wants you to come forward so he can use his angles and pop you from the outside and hit you with shots. That straight left is a bad punch. If he lands that shot, you’re going to go down and you’re going to feel it,” said Bradley.
Bradley might have interest in fighting Pacquiao again. He’s already fought Pacquiao 3 times. The rivalry stopped being interesting after the second they fought. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum chose to put Pacquiao and Bradley together for a third time last year, and the boxing showed that they weren’t thrilled by the fight, as the PPV numbers dipped badly from the previous 2 times they fought. Would Arum dare ask the boxing public to pay to see a 4th fight between Pacquiao and Bradley? I don’t think that would be a good idea, Arum needs to come up with some new options for Bradley and Pacquiao, because the rematch cycle gets old after a while, and so does matching Pacquiao against obscure fighters that the casual boxing fans have never heard of like Jeff Horn.
In an ideal world, Top Rank would match Bradley against some popular fighters like Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner, Amir Khan or Shawn Porter. I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s likely that Top Rank will keep Bradley fighting in house guys like Horn and Jessie Vargas.
