By Jim Dower: WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) once again volunteered his services for a fight against either Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao if the two fighters can’t work out a deal for a November 13th fight. In an inteview by Stephen Edwards at Boxingtalk.com, the 26-year-old Bradley said “I would be happy to step up [and fight Mayweather or Pacquiao]. I’m taking this fight [speaking about his July 17th bout against Luis Carlos Abregu] at 147, because there was nobody else to fight. The fight with Marcos Maidana fell through and nobody was available, so I want to fight see how I feel. If I feel good, I will go back and forth.”
Bradley is widely recognized as the best fighter in the light welterweight division. He’d like to take on WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan. However, Khan has been slow in wanting to take on Bradley or the other top light welterweights in the division. Bradley also wanted to fight Maidana, and still wants to after their fight fell through earlier this year after Maidana canceled it.
It would be a dream come true for Bradley if he were able to get a mega fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao. However, the chances of Bradley fighting Pacquiao would seem to be slim and none, because Bradley doesn’t fight for Top Rank, Bob Arum, who heads the company, will likely choose to match Pacquiao up against one of his other fighters like Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito rather than choosing a non-Top Rank fighter for Pacquiao to fight.
Mayweather, however, might be interested in facing Bradley, because he’s well know and smaller. It would still likely be a long shot for Mayweather to pick Bradley, because he doesn’t have a large fan base, and Mayweather usually likes to go after fighters that are fairly popular. Bradley will probably be a very popular fighter in a couple of years if he can keep winning and picking off talented fighters every once in awhile. But Mayweather probably won;’t want to take on a tough smaller guy like Bradley right now.
Bradley will be moving up in weight to the welterweight division to take on Abregu (29-0, 23 KO’s) on July 17th at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. Bradley wants to be able to move back and forth form light welterweight to welterweight to find the best fights possible. It will likely help him, but the one concern is whether his body can take moving up and down in the weights for long before Bradley starts having problems with feeling weak when coming down in weight.
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