Tim Bradley predicts that the top fighters at lightweight will avoid Abdullah Mason if he defeats San Noakes to win the vacant WBO lightweight title this month on November 22 in Riyadh.
The podcaster and Boxing Hall of Famer Bradley states that the 21-year-old Mason (19-0, 17 KOs) will be in the “who needs him” club if he captures the WBO title on Turki Alalshikh’s Ring IV event on DAZN PPV at the ANB Arena in Riyadh.
Abdullah Mason’s Path to the WBO Title
“Mason wins this title [vacant WBO lightweight belt], he’s going to be a dangerous fighter at 135 pounds. Trust me, not a lot of guys are going to call him out. They’re going to look the other way,” said podhost / commentator Tim Bradley on his YouTube channel, talking about how Abdullah Mason will be avoided by fighters at 135 if he defeats Sam Noakes to capture the vacant WBO lightweight title on November 22nd.
If Mason is victorious on November 22nd, some fighters will be eager to face him. These fearless lightweight contenders likely would jump at the chance to face Abdullah:
- Andy Cruz
- Floyd Schofield
- Jadier Herrera
- William Zepeda
The question is, would Mason’s promoters at Top Rank be open to matching him against any of those fighters? He would have a good chance of beating Herrera and Zepeda. However, those would still be risky fights for Mason because the two have elements to their game that would pose problems for him in terms of power [Jadier] and high-volume punch output [Zepeda].
It would be a bad idea for Top Rank to match Abdullah Mason against the power-puncher Schofield or the highly technical Cuban Andy Cruz. Those are both fights that Mason could lose. He lacks the technical skills to defeat Cruz, and the power of Schofield would be a serious threat.
Why Top Fighters Fear Mason’s Power
“They’re going to say, ‘He doesn’t bring enough to the table yet.’ That’s what they’re going to say. When a fighter doesn’t want to face another fighter, that’s what he says. ‘He don’t bring enough to the table. Oh, he’s just green. Yeah, he needs to keep building his notoriety.’ That’s what we say,” said Bradley about his belief that Abdullah Mason will be avoided like the plague if he captures the WBO title.
It’s easy to predict what Bradley says about Mason happening. When you look at the top fighters, like Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis, they’re likely not going to want to mix it up with a dangerous young puncher like Mason. He hits too hard, and he’s dangerous with either hand. Moreover, the money that would be on the line against Abdullah wouldn’t be massive enough for the top fighters at 135 to take the risk.