By Mark Hepplestall: The recent speculation of a bout between WBC/WBO Light Welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) and WBA champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s), subject to Khan beating McCloskey is possibly the most exciting fight on paper which should exceed their previous bouts and catapult the winner into superstardom. However I see this as awful matchmaking by Timothy Bradley’s team because judging on his recent fights I am really struggling to see how he can win, is it possible that his promoter and team have given up on making Bradley into a superstar and are just cashing in and feeding Bradley to Khan?

Firstly I would like to remind everyone that the fight is not set in stone and any single punch could make or break the careers of either of these two boxers.

So maybe the best way to look at this is by looking at what Bradley possesses over Khan, Bradley’s best weapon over Khan is the fact he likes to use his third fist in the majority of his bouts. Not saying it is deliberate but when the last six opponents have been cut due to clash of heads/head-butt you can tell that this will be a factor in the fight. However I am truly skeptical that he will be able to get away with it again in such a high profile fight, Golden Boy Promotions who handle Khan will be all over this warning the referee, screaming every time he leads with his head and even though it is against the rules, like in any sport it is getting increasingly hard for referees to not be influenced before the fight/game. The question posed is would Bradley crumble if the referee penalized him for leading with the head? Or could he change his game plan if threatened with disqualification?

Next Bradley clearly does not possess the only attribute that has threatened Khan, which is sheer power. Khan’s only loss came from a KO to Breidis Prescott, it’s easy to say the same punches would have KO’d anyone in the lightweight division should they have took the same punches in the same circumstances. However Bradley hasn’t scored a KO in four years or ten fights, and even that KO was against Nasser Athumani who was 37 years old and rated at best a domestic fighter in Kenya. A more worrying point would be that the more powerful right hand that Bradley does possess is hardly ever set up, against Alexander he landed 2 or 3 great right hands, however so many times he started to set up his right hand but then backed off instead of opening up the combination.

A third point is Bradley totally forgets about his defense and relies on good movement when trying to get to the inside were Bradley does the best of his offensive work. Now against somebody who moves like Khan and keeps the fights at length like Khan does, plus the fact Khan likes to open up with 4 or 5 punch combinations when boxers try to move inside, it almost makes it sound like suicide for Bradley.

Also Bradley does not do his best work on the outside, he is pretty one dimensional just piling pressure on his opponent hoping setting a high tempo will be enough to beat or outwork his opponent. However this will not work if Khan keeps the fight on the outside were he does the majority of his best work.

Lastly maybe the biggest point is how are these boxers going to prepare for the fight? Khan will be training and sparring with Manny Pacquiao, who has better movement, speed and power then Bradley but will still be able to mimic his ring actions, but I’m struggling to decide who Bradley would be able to use in sparring, Khan is pretty unique in the light welterweight division and not many people have the same movement and speed as Khan, maybe Juan Manuel Marquez could be used?