Let me start off by saying that I have nothing against Timothy Bradley. I think the man is a great boxer and deserves to be at the top of the jr. welterweight division. He always carries himself with class and always speaking his mind. He's usually not one to badmouth another boxer, unless provoked, and he backs up his talk every time he steps into the ring. Tim Bradley, in my opinion, epitomizes what a professional athlete should be. He performs in the clutch and delivers when his number is called. With that being said, Timothy Bradley does have one major problem...his ego!
Bradley is 27-0 and has beaten names like Witter, Holt, Peterson, and Alexander. He is constantly called out by the best in the 140-pound division and knocks them down every time he is challenged. However, Bradley seems to forget one important thing: nobody outside of hardcore boxing fans knows who he is. Bradley was supposed to fight Amir Khan to solidify the top spot as the best jr. welterweight in the world. Instead, Bradley decided to back out of his biggest payday to date in hopes of breaking away from his current promoter to land a mega-fight with Top Rank's prized possession, Manny Pacquiao.
Would Bradley have been a more worthy adversary for Pacquiao than Antonio Margarito? Yes! Did he deserve to fight Pacquiao more than say, Shane Mosley? Absolutely! But the one thing those two guys have that Bradley does not possess is name recognition. There is no doubt that Bradley would likely be the betting favorite against both Margarito and Mosley, but how many pay-per-view buys would a Pacquiao-Bradley clash generate? Bradley does not have an entire country of followers like Margarito had with his Mexican fanbase. Bradley does not have a Hall-of-Fame resume like "Sugar" Shane has earned. Those guys earned their recognition by doing one thing Bradley is trying to forgo, fighting big fights for a less money to earn the mega-fights for mega-dollars. Truth be told, a Pacquiao-Bradley fight might actually generate less buys than Pacquiao-Clottey (which generated roughly 700,000 buys).
Because of Bradley's refusal to fight Khan, he is being sued by his former promoters Gary Shaw and Ken Thompson. Bradley must realize that if he barely drew 2,000 people in his hometown to watch him fight, he is certainly not deserving of demanding a fight with Manny Pacquiao. If he gets the fight, good for him. Would it be entertaining? I think so, but Timothy Bradley needs to continue working on building his brand in the ring as opposed to trying to talk his way into the fight (did someone say David Haye).
Timothy Bradley is a great fighter on the verge of big things, but he needs to realize that he is not bigger than boxing. At least not yet.
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