By Jim Dower: World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) is looking forward to fighting WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s) next. In article by Greg Leon of Boxing Talk, the 26-year-old Bradley says “I was going to fight Abregu, which would have been a dangerous fight. But I guess since he [Maidana] destroyed Victor Cayo, who was a mover, they feel he can deal with anybody. My people were on the horn with Maidana’s people after he stopped Cayo, and I want nothing but the best, and Maidana is a great fight. He established himself with a great win over Victor Cayo. Maidana, after I beat him, Khan will have nowhere to run. Then after I beat Khan, Devon Alexander will probably be my following match.”

This is sensational news about the Maidana-Bradley fight, because Maidana is one of the most exciting fighters in the light welterweight division, and Bradley is second to none, considered to be the top guy at that weight class. Maidana loses nothing no matter what happens in the fight. Bradley will have to be very careful, because Maidana is plenty tough as he showed in his fight with Cayo.

Bradley called Cayo just “a mover,” which is true in part. However, against Maidana, Cayo revealed that he’s also a big puncher as well, and was throwing leather that many of the top light welterweights only wished that they could throw. A Maidana vs. Bradley bout is a much better fight than Bradley-Abregu. That fight would have been a war as well, but Abregu has already been shown to have a vulnerable chin in his fights against Richard Gutierrez and David Estrada.

Bradley probably doesn’t hit as hard as those two, but he would land enough on the inside to make Abregu miserable for 12 rounds, and possibly have stopped him if he had hit him enough. Maidana isn’t someone that has a weak chin, and he’ll keep coming forward all night long. Bradley will have to change his whole game plan around if he wants to beat Maidana. Bradley has become used to fighting in close in his last four fights against Edner Cherry, Kendall Holt, Nate Campbell and Lamont Peterson.

If Bradley fights like that against Maidana, he’s going to take a pounding. Maidana is able to put a lot of power on his punches in close and seems to be an even stronger puncher at close range compared to when he’s on the outside. Bradley is going to take punishment in this fight no matter what happens. If he boxes, he has a good chance of winning, but he’ll have to move all night long for 12 rounds to keep Maidana off of him.

But knowing Bradley, he has too much pride to run from Maidana and will probably stand and trade with him to prove that he’s the better main. Maidana already wore down Victor Ortiz, a Golden Boy Promotions fighter, stopping him in the 6th round last year. And as we saw in Maidana’s recent fight against Cayo on March 27th, Maidana’s power and relentless pressure was too much for Cayo. That might be the same case for Bradley. Maidana wasn’t supposed to beat Ortiz, and looked what happened.