By Eric Thomas: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) has reportedly vacated his 140 pound WBO title, and kept his 147 pound strap, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. It wasn’t a hard decision for Bradley to make, because he had to give up one of them due to the WBO rules preventing fighters from having more than one WBO strap.
The logical choice for Bradley was to hold onto the welterweight title rather than the light welterweight strap, because the big money fights are in the welterweight division with fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. At light welterweight, Bradley will be limited to million dollar paydays each time he fights. He wants to keep getting money like the cash he got in beating Pacquiao.
Bradley’s manager Cameron Dunkin told Dan Rafael at ESPN “Timmy wants to keep the 147 belt because that’s where the action is.”
By Bradley having vacated the WBO light welterweight title, this will now free up the title and it’ll now be given to WBO interim light welterweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez to keep. That’s a good thing, but it’s still unclear why Marquez even wasted his time by winning the interim title, because the fight he’s looking for is a fourth fight against Pacquiao at 147, and his 140 pound title will be useless because the fight won’t be held at 140.
Bradley and Pacquiao could be facing each other in a rematch in November. Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, wants to see him face Marquez in a fourth fight, but Pacquiao seems to be leaning in the direction of facing Bradley again in order to try and avenge his loss. I guess it must bother the Filipino star that he was beaten by Bradley. If Pacquiao doesn’t fight Bradley and Bradley gets beaten by someone else in his next fight, Pacquiao will have missed his chance at fighting him. No one would want to see Pacquiao and Bradley fight again if Bradley gets beaten.
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