Bradley: Khan needs me; I don’t need him

By Boxing News - 10/28/2011 - Comments

Image: Bradley: Khan needs me; I don’t need himBy William Mackay: WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) will be fighting in front of a nationwide audience on November 12th against 40-year-old Joel Casamayor (38-5-1, 22 KO’s) on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight will be shown on HBO PPV, but most of the buyers that tune in will be purchasing the card to see the Pacquiao-Marquez fight rather than the undercard fight between Bradley and the 40-year-old Casamayor.

Bob Arum, Bradley’s new promoter from Top Rank, is gambling that he can turn Bradley into a star and put him in with Arum cash cow fighter Pacquiao at some point in the not too distant future. In the meantime, the fight that a lot of hardcore boxing fans want to see is Bradley vs. IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan.

Bradley initially attempted to make the fight with Khan around the same time Khan signed with Golden Boy Promotions, Bradley says. However, Bradley was ignored. When he started having promotional problems suddenly Khan and Golden Boy became interested in making the fight with Bradley, but now it was Khan’s turn to be ignored.

Bradley says he wants to wait on the Khan fight until after both of them are bigger stars, and right now it’s not a good time. Bradley is in effect letting the fight build for a later date. It’s a gamble because we’ve already seen Khan knocked out once before against Breidis Prescott, and then almost knocked out against in his fight against Marcos Maidana.

Bradley said “Right now, at 140, Amir Khan can’t move without me. He needs me. I don’t need him. I am going to get in there and fight my fights and that’s it.”



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