By Eric Thomas: WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) has signed with HBO, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Bradley, 26, has been fighting on Showtime as of late. However, Showtime didn’t have him under contract, which enabled HBO to scoop him up for their network. This move should enable Bradley to be set up against other top light welterweights that HBO has been showing on their cable network, like Devon Alexander. For the time being, Bradley will be matched up with welterweight contender Luis Carlos Abregu (29-0, 23 KO’s) on June 26th.

This will be a non-title fight, because it will be held at welterweight. There was no other fighter available for that date, and HBO okayed Abregu for the Bradley fight, Rafael reports. Abregu, 27, is a slugger with good power and with little ability on defense. Abregu recently defeated Richard Gutierrez by a 10 round unanimous decision in February 2010, in a fight in which both Abregu and Gutierrez were knocked down.

Other than the Gutierrez fight, Abregu has faced only a couple of notable fighters, beating Irving Garcia and David Estrada. Abregu barely beat Estrada and looked totally gassed in the last three rounds of his 10 round split decision win in December 2008. At 5’10”, Abregu will have a four inch height advantage over the 5’6” Bradley.

Bradley is hoping to fight the best fighters in the light welterweight. Provided that he gets by Abregu in one piece, Bradley will be looking to take on fighters like Alexander, Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan. The good thing about Bradley signing with HBO is that it will be easier for him to get a fight against the top light welterweights, because HBO has Alexander, Maidana and Khan already fighting on their network, to it shouldn’t be hard for Bradley to get a fight against them.

In his last fight, Bradley dominated light welterweight contender Lamont Peterson, beating him by a 12 round decision in December. Bradley looked to be on his way to victory in a no contest with Nate Campbell last year in August. The fight was stopped because of a bad cut over the eight eye of Campbell due to a head butt. Bradley also has wins over Junior Witter, Miguel Vazquez, Edner Cherry, and Kendall Holt. Bradley would like to fight Alexander, who recently defeated IBF light welterweight champion Juan Urango by an 8th round stoppage last weekend.