By William Mackay: WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 Ko’s) unified the titles tonight in beating WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-1, 13 KO’s) by a 10 round technical decision on Saturday night in this important battle for bragging rights for the best fighter in the light welterweight division. Alexander took a hard headbutt in the 10th and couldn’t continue fighting. The head clash wasn’t intentional and just happened due to both fighters leaning when they came close together.
Bradley dominated most of the fight, although some of the rounds were mighty close. There’s no shame in fighting close with a skilled fighter like Alexander, though. The final judges scores more or less showed how well Bradley fought – 97-92, 96-95 and 98-92. I don’t agree with the 96-95 score for a second. You’d have to close your eyes to the way that Bradley completely took over the fight in the 2nd half of the bout to score the fight that closely.
Alexander fought well through most of the fight, but he was affected by Bradley’s fast combinations and power. Alexander didn’t seem ready for the speed and fierceness of Bradley’s attacks. Alexander tried all his old tricks with the uppercuts and hooks – weapons that had allowed him to dominate lesser fighters – but Bradley wasn’t slowed down or hurt for an instant by these shots. He just walked through them and continued to land the harder and more telling shots.
With this win, Bradley will now be facing WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, that is, if Khan doesn’t come up with an excuse about Bradley pricing himself out of the bout. I can see that happening, which would give Khan cover for not having to face Bradley and likely get exposed. I seriously doubt Khan will take this fight. Instead, I see Khan moving up in weight and calling out Floyd Mayweather Jr. until he’s blue in the face. At least if Khan gets destroyed by Mayweather, it won’t be nearly as bad as when he gets destroyed by Bradley, because Mayweather is considered a far bigger star than Bradley.
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