By Manuel Perez: WBC light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (22-0, 11 KOs) will be making his first title defense of his newly won WBC crown against number #6th ranked challenger Edner Cherry (24-5, 12 KOs). Bradley, 24, arguably the best light welterweight in the division at this point, recently defeated the fighter previously considered to be the best by many boxing fans, Junior Witter, by a 12-round split decision in May. The scoring of the fight seemed more than a little erratic, however, as Bradley appeared to dominate most of the fight with ease, knocking Witter down with a big right hand in the 6th round. Bradley had hopes that Ricky Hatton, who at one time was considered to be the top guy in the division, would show interested in fighting him, but like with Witter, Hatton didn’t want any part of the dangerous Bradley.
Witter himself had been futilely chasing Hatton for the past years trying to arrange a title match with him, only to be initially ignored and then later rebuffed, with the comment that he talks too much in the media and for that reason Hatton won’t be fighting him.
In choosing Cherry, Bradley is mostly looking at a stay busy fight. Cherry is a good fighter, but one that gets slapped down every time he steps it up against good A class fighters like Paulie Malignaggi, Jose Armando Santa Cruz and Ricky Quiles. However, he is capable of putting on a fine performance on occasion against top fighters, beating the likes of Monty Meza Clay and Stevie Johnston.
However, let’s be clear about this, he’s not remotely in the same class as Bradley and will likely lose either by a lopsided decision or a knockout. Cherry is more of a plodder, someone that likes to slug it out on the inside against slower fighters. When matched with a fighter with fast hands and good boxing skills like Malignaggi or a high work rate, like in the case of Quiles and Santa Cruz, Cherry is in way over his head. Look for an easy win for Bradley. Hopefully, with an impressive win over Cherry, Hatton might look his way – or be forced to – when the boxing public began clamoring for a fight between the two.
Bradley would likely beat Hatton as bad as Floyd Mayweather Jr. did, by the way. I tend to doubt Hatton will show any interest in Bradley no matter what the circumstances are. Bradley is clearly fighting well at this point, and his easy win over Witter would seem to rule out any interest on Hatton’s part. In other words, Bradley is too dangerous for his own good. More likely, we’ll either see Bradley take on his number #1 contender Devon Alexander, a good fighter but one who has been pushed up much too quickly in the rankings for his own good.
Bradley would likely easily defeat him as well, although who knows? If Alexander had two or three more years to improve, he might get progress enough to one day defeat Bradley. However, at this point Alexander would get a rude boxing lesson by Bradley, ending with a likely knockout. As for this Saturday’s opponent, Edner Cherry, he stands absolutely no chance of winning. Look for a 6th round stoppage win for Bradley. Cherry will make it easy for him by trying to slug it out and will only succeed in walking into something bit and get taken out.