By L.E. Shepard: After a controversial loss last Saturday to Lamont Peterson, Amir Khan got a rude awakening concerning his claim of being the top junior welterweight in the world. Timothy Bradley, who was previously considered the best fighter at 140, rejected an offer to fight Khan back in July in what would have been his biggest payday to date.

His decision cost him his WBC championship belt for inactivity after a 6 -month layoff. Bradley also lost his top spot in the rankings to Khan. Some believe Bradley ducked Khan, while others like myself feel it was a strategic business move. Tim left promoter Gary Shaw after a poor turnout in the fight with Devon Alexander, to sign with Top Rank, one of boxing’s promotional giants. His goal was “to of build more hype for the fight with Khan and become a star in the sport.” During Bradley’s layoff Khan padded his resume with wins against Paul McCloskey and Zab Judah, giving him momentum and the IBF belt to go with the WBA title already in his possession.

After coming back from his layoff in a dominating performance against Joel Casamayor, it seemed inevitable that Bradley would fight Khan sometime in 2012 to clean out the division. All Khan had to do was get past Lamont Peterson, a fighter Tim dominated two years ago, and the best at 140 could be decided. Peterson the only fighter Bradley and Khan would have both faced was supposed to be an unofficial measuring stick to compare the two warriors. Well, it went down and in the end it seems the two fighters don’t compare. During the fight Khan tried to keep Peterson at bay with his speedy combinations but couldn’t stop him and suffered punishment on the inside. Lamont showed resolve and kept pushing forward to steal a victory but was not as active as he could have been to win convincingly. If you bring Bradley into the mix who is a more skilled boxer, better inside puncher, and more aggressive than Peterson, you have a one sided fight in Bradley’s favor.

That being said Bradley holds the cards once again and has a few options to choose from. His first choices would no doubt be Manny Pacquiao or JM Marquez although the P4P king’s priorities seem to lie with the mega showdown with Floyd Mayweather, or a 4th battle in his war with Marquez. A second option could be to face Brandon Rios, the lightweight #2 ranked fighter, who will probably move up a division after being stripped of his title for failing to make weight in his TKO victory over John Murray. The last two options for Tim Bradley’s next fight although less likely could be a rematch with Lamont Peterson to unify the division, or a move up to welterweight to face the loser of the Ortiz vs. Berto fight set for late Jan early Feb. The winner will most likely get a match with Pretty Boy Floyd.