Is there any price that Pacquiao can meet to change his mind?
"Absolutely not," stated Bradley, unequivocally,"because he’s in my weight class. He’s going up to these catch-weights and going up because he’s chasing money. He has a goal in mind, him and his trainer, but if he wants to come get some at ’40, I’m going to be right there. I’m not going to give him a look at me."
But his promoter Gary Shaw says of Pacquiao,"Look, he’s a multi-millionaire, so I’m sure a couple hundred thousand dollars to have Timmy in camp for three weeks, wouldn’t be bad."
Realistically, that wont happen, and the odds of Pacquiao- who is facing Mayweather at a weight limit of 147-pounds- ever moving back down to face Bradley are slim. Even he realizes that. But what Bradley wants are a series of fights that will take him to another tax bracket. And he has plenty of options inside his own division.
"Let’s be realistic," he says when asked who his personal hit-list would include," I would say, probably Amir Khan, then Juan Urango, who else? ( Juan Manuel) Marquez, ( Paulie) Malignaggi. Who else?"
How ’bout Marcos Maidana?
"Absolutely, we can get it on with him, too. Hard-hitting Marcos Maidana? Oh, yeah," he says. His manager Cameron Dunkin is on board with that match-up," Maidana’s a guy that I think Timmy would like. He’s a slower guy, hard-punching, but Timmy’s real smart. I think it’s a good fight for Timmy but I’ll have to talk him and Joel Diaz, his trainer, and get their thoughts. But I like the fight."
Urango currently has the IBF belt in his possession. Maidana is the WBA interim champion and the WBC strap is held by Devon Alexander. Is Bradley thinking about perhaps unifying this deep and talented division?"That was one of my goals then I got kind of side tracked a little bit due to the fact I know now it’s about making that money," he says." You gotta make that money, it’s a money business. I felt I should’ve got a shot at Manny Pacquiao due to the fact he was the world champion at the weight class. I was number one. I felt it was my time to get that fight. But I just know it’s about that money, man. He’s facing Mayweather, so now I’m just going to do my own thing. I’m not going to wait on these guys, I’m just going to do my own thing and if those guys want to fight me, sooner or later, then hey, we can do it."
But the most lucrative of the options mentioned above is Khan, who is quite the draw in England. Bradley makes it clear that he is more than willing to travel overseas to make that fight a reality- if the price is right.
"The money has to be right, it all depends on the figures," he states."I don’t want to go over there for a million dollars and come home with half of that, due to taxes, what I’m paying out. It has to be right but I wouldn’t mind going over there with 40,000 people. Let’s make sure the money is right. I’ll take 60-percent of the pot and he takes 40."
That proposed split would cause a bit of a problem on Khan’s side given that while Bradley has been on an impressive run, he still fights in small theaters in Southern California casino’s, while Khan does huge numbers in England. And Khan might have other plans anyway, the scuttlebutt throughout the industry is that Khan, who just recently stopped the over-matched Dmitriy Salita in 76 seconds, will co-headline a March 6Th HBO telecast.
"I was with Freddie over in Youngstown Ohio," said Dunkin, who also handles the career of middleweight champion, Kelly Pavlik. Roach, was with Vanes Martirosyan, who fought on this past weekends card against Willie Lee before Pavlik stopped Miguel Espino." I mentioned Timmy( as a possible opponent for Khan), he acted like he wanted Timmy more as a sparring partner. He said Paulie Malignaggi for Amir Khan."
Shaw says,"I’d like to get him a big fight if I could. And obviously of the Amir Khan ilk. So I have a call into Frank Warren, I’m hoping to hear back from Frank. I’ve spoken to Golden Boy about a fight with Maidana. But there’s no one I wont fight with Timmy. He’s the number one 140-pounder in the world."
There isn’t much argument on that front. With his recent run that was capped off by his surprisingly lopsided victory over mandatory challenger, Lamont Peterson, Bradley has become the consensus choice as the sports best in his division and has begun to show up on some mythical pound-for-pound lists.
"This guy was a huge threat and I just can’t believe I handled him the way I handled him," said Bradley, reflecting back on his victory at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, California, on December the 12th."I proved to myself I can beat anybody in this division and if I put my mind to it and actually get out there and just let myself flow, just be myself. I was myself in that ring, I was doing things in that ring that I do in training. I was myself, I was relaxed and just poised. If I do that in every fight, then I think it’s going to be really tough to beat me because I’ll be on my A-game."
Peterson, who was undefeated coming in, was tabbed by many insiders to take Bradley’s crown. It was thought that his advantage in size, combined with his technical precision, would be too much for the native of Palm Springs. Instead, Bradley put on a dazzling display of boxing, winning by the scores of 118-110, 119-108 and 120-107.
"All the critics, everybody, all the writers, a lot of people had me the underdog in the fight and I’m the world champion. Due to his height, due to his reach, but see, that just shows that a lot of people don’t know a lot about me," said Bradley, who is in his physical prime at age 26."They don’t know my background. If you look at my background I always fought bigger guys. It’s the shorter guys I don’t like because they’re able to get underneath me. But the bigger guys, it takes a long time to get their hands back to their face and I’m quick enough to make them pay."
There is a lot of talk of Maidana facing Alexander on March 6Th( on that same telecast with Khan). Victor Ortiz has already turned down the opportunity to face Bradley next according to both Shaw and Dunkin. But Bradley’s promoter believes that all roads will eventually come through his fighter.
"I have the number one jr. welterweight in the world, where do they go? Because they could all keep fighting themselves, until they fight Timmy, they wont be number one," Shaw told Maxboxing. He added later,"At the end of the day, they’re going to have to come to Timmy Bradley. The press and the fans, those are the fights they are going to want to see. Timmy hasn’t ducked anybody, he’s fought some of the best in Kendall Holt and Lamont Peterson and it was a different Junior Witter, believe me, over in England. So I’m not worried at all. I think we’ll find the right fights for Timmy."
Regardless, Shaw says that Showtime and their boxing czar, Ken Hershman, will carve out space for Bradley for the first half of 2010.
"He’s going to make room for Timmy, for Vic Darchinyan and Yonnhy Perez," says Shaw, who promotes the trio."All three have grown up on ShoBox, graduated to Showtime and are all world champions now."
Whenever, whoever and wherever he ends up fighting next, Bradley, is already getting prepared.
"I started running on Saturday, I was back on my road work this morning. I’m staying focused, I’m keeping my weight down and just thinking about my next move. There’s a lot of options there."
YULETIDE FLURRIES
I can’t lie, I had completely forgotten that Lucian Bute had already defeated Sakio Bika. So in my ’10 for ’10’ I’d replace that with a clash of young welterweights, Mike Jones and Selcuk Aydin....There is a meet-and-greet with Tomasz Adamek this Wednesday night at the Jersey Garden Mall( 651 Kapkowski Road, Elizabeth, NJ 07201) at the lower level center court, between 6:30 and 7:30....Shaw is thinking about slotting Darchinyan as the opening bout on March 6th before Arthur Abraham and Andre Dirrell get it on at the Agua Caliente Casino on Showtime....Are the San Diego ’Super’ Chargers the most dangerous and over-looked team in the NFL, right now?....John Wall of Kentucky is the real deal. In my mind, he’s already the number pick of the upcoming NBA Draft, barring any major injuries....Promoter Dan Goossen has agreed to come on as a guest on the next edition of ’
the Main Event’ this Wednesday night.... Any questions or comments can be sent to
k9kim@yahoo.com....
Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing....
