By John F. McKenna: Timothy Bradley need not think that his standing rose in the aftermath of the fight. What I saw was an ugly fight that he was in a large part responsible for. The clinching and chronic head butting was difficult to watch. We have all heard Timothy Bradley’s name mentioned repeatedly as a potential challenger for the stars of the division.

Any future opponent of Bradley’s would have to weigh out the prospects of facing a fighter that literally leads with his shaved head, is very difficult to fight and does not have a huge fan base. What would the advantage be for HBO and the promoters who were burned by Bradley’s latest performance to risk another ugly fight? Further, what would someone like Amir Kahn have to gain by facing Timothy Bradley when the division is so loaded with other talent?
Amir Khan would probably win this fight, but he would run the same risk as any other fighter in getting head butted several times during the fight, risking a stoppage due to cuts. Bradley’s only chance to win against Khan’s laser like punches would be to again make it an ugly fight and attempt to rough him up. No body wants to see that.

Hype has it’s place in boxing. No one questions that. Everyone does it. Even Emanuel Steward weighs in on the prospects of upcoming fighters who challenge Vladimir Klitschko in an effort to make the fight seem like it is more of a challenge than it really is. The problem begins when fighters that are not really superstars are portrayed to be so by the press. A certain amount of credibility is lost whenever a hyped up fight turns out to a dud as last Saturday nights fight certainly was.