By Sean McDaniel: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) was surprised and hurt by criticism about his performance against WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander a week ago. Bradley probably was expecting to receive praise after unifying the WBC and WBO titles by beating Alexander by a 10 round technical decision that exposed Alexander as not being able to handle pressure.

However, boxing fans for the most part have been unanimous in their criticism of Bradley for being less than impressive in that fight, lacking power and leading with his head.

In an article by Michael Rosenthal at the ringtv.craveonline.com, Bradley’s co-promoter Alex Camponova, said “Tim is pretty overwhelmed by the reaction of the media, what they’re saying about head butts and everything. Listen, the guy clearly won the fight. one wanted to fight and the other didn’t do anything. To me, he quit. I’ve seen worse cuts than that.”

There’s no question that Bradley won the fight against Alexander. He clearly beat Alexander and made him look bad. But at the same time, Bradley failed to look impressive himself. Bradley led with his head and lacked power, and did far too much holding and wrestling. I don’t think Bradley can do much to change his style of leading with his head, because of his limited 5’6″ height. He doesn’t have the height or the arm length to make up for his lack of height. Because of that, Bradley has to get in close to land his shots and unfortunately he tends to lower his head and ram his way to the inside. It’s too bad he doesn’t have power to make up for his lack of size, but that’s the way it is. He’s fortunate that Alexander wasn’t much of a puncher either, because had this been someone like Marcos Maidana or Lucas Matthysse that Bradley was in there with, he would have been in trouble.

Camponova acknowledges Bradley’s height problems, saying “Not unless he grows four inches in the next few months.”

Bradley is likely going to have problems when he faces the 5’10” Amir Khan in the future. Khan has the speed, size, reach and power to give Bradley all kinds of problems. He’s not likely going to do well in that fight unless Bradley can find some power before then.