By Jim Dower: The World Boxing Council has stripped unbeaten WBC light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (24-0, 11 KOs) for reportedly not facing his WBC number #1 ranked challenger Devon Alexander. However, Bradley, 25, sent in an e-mail earlier today to the WBC, telling them that he’s vacating the WBC title because the WBC was telling him to choose between keeping either the WBC or WBO light welterweight titles. It seemed like an easy choice for Bradley to make.
The number #1 and #2 challengers in the WBO are Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton, whereas the number #1 and #2 challengers for the WBC are Devon Alexander and Junior Witter. With those kinds of fighters just below him, which belt would you choose to keep?
There’s no point in keeping the WBC, because the money that Bradley would make in fighting Alexander is nothing compared to the kind of cash he would get in facing either Pacquiao or Hatton. Even if Hatton and Pacquiao never do decide to fight Bradley, he’s still better off keeping the WBO title because the number #3 challenger is Victor Ortiz, a fighter that is easily more popular than either Alexander or Witter.
Bradley has already beaten Witter by a 12-round split decision last year in May 2008, and Alexander wouldn’t be an interesting opponent due to his nonexistent power and his dull manner of fighting. Bradley would likely beat both Witter and Alexander, yet receive only a fraction of the money he’ll get if he can get Hatton or Pacquiao in the ring with him.
With the WBC title now free and up for grabs, Bradley and Alexander will now fight it out for the vacant title. Both fighters are talented but badly flawed, so it’s hard to pick a winner of the two. Alexander fights poorly at a distance and seems to be at his best on the inside.
However, he has no power and has fought mediocre opposition up to this point in his early career. For his part, Witter, 35, has the better overall skill by far. However, he’s starting to show his age in the past couple of fights and doesn’t move or punch as fast as he used to.
If this fight were to have taken place three years ago, I’d have picked Witter by a lopsided 12 round decision. But, now that he’s a little bit older, slower and more of a stationary target, I think he’ll struggle to beat Alexander.
I still think he’ll have too many skills for Alexander, but it will be a close victory with Witter tiring out in the 2nd half of the fight. I can’t see either fighter holding onto the title for long, because fighters like Nate Campbell and Randall Bailey are looming in the background and I see both of them as better fighters than Alexander and Witter.
I think Witter might be better off if he focuses his energy on the local British boxing scene where he can probably extend his career for another five years beating the mostly soft opposition there.
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