Is Tim Bradley Still an Elite Fighter Ahead of Showdown with Brandon Rios?
If you're wondering whether welterweight Timothy Bradley is still seen as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, you're not alone.
Boxing pundits across the globe aren't really that sure, either.
In fact, depending on whom you trust to help you form your own opinion on such matters, you can come to just about every possible conclusion. Bradley, age 32, is considered by various boxing publications everything from a top-five pound-for-pound fighter in the world to one who should be completely absent from top-10 lists altogether.
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| Boxing News | No. 5 |
| ESPN.com | No. 7 |
| Newsday | Unranked |
| Ring Magazine | Unranked |
| Saturday Night Boxing | No. 5 |
| Transnational Boxing Rankings Board | No. 4 |
| Queensbury Rules | No. 4 |
| USA Today | Unranked |
But what's the truth?
Bradley is one of the most accomplished fighters in the sport today. He has earned world titles in three different weight classes, holds legitimate wins over the likes of Juan Manuel Marquez, Lamont Peterson and Ruslan Provodnikov and was at the very least competitive with Manny Pacquiao over two fights and 24 rounds of high-level action.
He has but one official blemish on his ledger. Bradley was decisioned by Pacquiao in a 2014 rematch of one of the most controversial fights in boxing history, one that saw two of the three judges at ringside score the fight for Bradley despite almost everyone else in the world seeing things the opposite way.
Regardless, losing a fight to Pacquiao circa 2012 is nothing to hang one's head over. No matter how you scored the fight, it wasn't like Bradley was blown out of the water or anything. He didn't appear to be hopelessly outclassed in the bout even if you were ultimately aligned with the 121 of 125 media members (via BoxRec) who gave the nod to Pacquiao that night.
And Bradley rebounded nicely after. He outslugged Provodnikov in a wildly entertaining brawlfest in his next fight and followed that up with a career-defining win over future Hall of Famer Marquez.
So Bradley's elite, right?
Well, it isn't quite that easy. Despite all the positive attributes of Bradley's career to date, there have also been signs that allude to a lesser viewpoint of the fighter.
First, to round out the Pacquiao discussion in full, it didn't quite appear Bradley could really beat Pacquiao in either fight. No, he wasn't completely annihilated, but it also didn't appear probable he could do much more (at least to me) than win four or five rounds against Pacquiao.
Throwing that out of the equation completely (after all, he does technically have a win over Pacquiao on the official record books) still welcomes credible doubt about his status as an elite fighter.
Think about it this way: How good has Bradley looked over his last three fights? Good? Great? Average?
Bradley is 1-1-1 over that stretch. He was handled by Pacquiao, held to a draw against Diego Chaves and was barely able to hang on after taking a Round 12 thunderbolt to the jaw in a decision win over Jessie Vargas.
And what about his close decision over Provodnikov? Do elite fighters struggle against the type of limited brawler Provodnikov has proved to be? Do they appear out on their feet multiple times against such middling contenders?
Is Bradley really all that elite?
I offer no answers to these questions at the present. Like just about everything that happens outside of the ring in boxing, it boils down to one's personal opinion until more data is collected.
But whatever the truth is about Bradley, Brandon Rios should help in revealing it to the masses more. Rios is tough, aggressive and willing to come forward and fight for every minute of every round. If boxing was decided only on how much one wants to win on fight night, Rios would be at or near the top of the sport.
But Rios lacks elite talent. He's game against everyone he faces, but no one in their right mind believes he'll ever be more than an entertaining and popular brawler who delivers action against average-to-good fighters and gets handled by the elite.
If Bradley is as good as some folks think he is, he'll make Rios look like a man who brought a knife to a gun fight. But if he's not elite—if he's truly more the man who went life and death with Provodnikov than the one who outboxed a savvy Marquez—Bradley will once again find himself in a war of attrition.
Is Bradley elite? Ask me again after Saturday.
Note — Kelsey McCarson is a voter in the TBRB and USA Today rankings listed above. Additionally, he contributes the Bleacher Report pound-for-pound rankings where he consistently ranks Bradley among the top 10 fighters in boxing.
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