By William Mackay: WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s) did what he had to do to grind out a 12 round unanimous decision over Luis Carlos Abregu (29-1, 23 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. It was the 26-year-old Bradley’s first fight at welterweight, and it was supposed to be an impressive outing for him so that he could get a big money fight against mega stars Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. It didn’t work out that way, though. Bradley clearly won, beating Abregu by the scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112.

It was difficult to pick who the better fighter was in the first three rounds of the fight on Saturday night, as both Abregu and Bradley landed pretty much equally. Bradley, 26, did have a better first round after appearing to hurt Abregu with a right hand. However, Bradley was unable to do anything about it because his power seemed to disappear completely when he began to load up on shots.

In the 3rd and 4th rounds, Abregu landed with huge punches, getting the better of the action. Bradley at this time looked like a light welterweight who was out of his class. In the 5th, Bradley came back, landing nicely to the head and body and showing some fast hands and good boxing skills.

Abregu was cut over his left eye in the 7th when Bradley came charging forward with his head down like a Billy Goat. The round was ugly with wrestling on the inside, and short punches from Bradley during the wrestling. It wasn’t impressive stuff, believe me.

In the 8th through 12h rounds, Bradley mostly got the better of the action, but he still was getting hit with some nice shots from the tiring Abregu.
After the fight, Bradley mentioned wanting to fight Manny Pacquiao and Devon Alexander.

It was a decent fight for Bradley. He got the win but he wasn’t especially impressive in the fight to the point where I would want to see him in fights against Alexander or Pacquiao. I’d rather see Bradley in with Marcos Maidana or Amir Khan before facing quality fighters like Pacquiao and Alexander. Maidana, with his big power and excellent inside fighting skills, would be a problem for Bradley the way he looked against Abregu. Khan would be a problem for Bradley as well because of his long reach, fast hands and good power. I could see Khan out-boxing Bradley unless Khan was to get hurt.