By Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) 12 round split decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) last night won’t magically open doors for Bradley to get a big money fight against unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. He doesn’t think Bradley will get a fight against Mayweather Jr. until Bradley leaves Top Rank, which likely won’t happen until he starts getting beaten routinely.
Mayweather would probably like the idea of fighting Bradley because it would be an easier fight than Mayweather’s last two fights against Robert Guerrero and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, but he’s not going to do Top Rank any favors by fighting one of their guys. That’s not going to happen. It’s unclear how long Bradley has left with his Top Rank contract, but it’s likely longer than what Mayweather has left in his career. Bradley signed with Top Rank in 2011, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that he has at least 2 more years left with them. But even if the contract does end, it’s likely he’ll be immediately re-signed by them as long as he’s still winning and hasn’t turned into just another contender.
Mayweather vs. Bradley wouldn’t be a big fight anyway because Bradley lacks a huge fan base. Just listening to the crowd cheer for Marquez last night in the Bradley-Marquez fight, you could see pretty clearly that Bradley didn’t have a lot of fans in the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas.
Mayweather, due to his Showtime contract, needs to be fighting guys that come into the fight with an established fan base that can help generate PPV buys. Bradley doesn’t have that. Casual boxing fans don’t know who he is, he’s not someone that’s talked about in lunch rooms by casual fans, and he probably never will be. Mayweather Jr. needs to be fighting guys like Canelo, Miguel Cotto and maybe Manny Pacquiao someday if he ever leaves Top Rank.
As long as Bradley is with Top Rank, he’ll have to be content with fighting Pacquiao, Brandon Rios, Ruslan Provodnikov and Mike Alvarado for pretty much the remainder of his career. If Arum can match him up with those guys 2-3 times each, it should extend Bradley for the next 4 years with fighting those guys alone.
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