Ranking the Best Opponents for Timothy Bradley's Next Fight
It's resurrection Sunday for Timothy Bradley.
The 32-year-old Californian had already been a two-division champion before he arrived to the ring Saturday night to take on Brandon Rios, but the athletic and violent performance he put on over 26 minutes, 49 seconds has already boosted the fervor to a new level.
The HBO announce team of Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman and Roy Jones Jr. gushed over Bradley's new relationship with trainer Teddy Atlas throughout, and Bradley himself conceded to the effectiveness of the union when asked for initial impressions in the ring afterward.
"This is seven weeks," he told Kellerman. "I wonder what a year would do. I wonder what two years would bring. The sky is the limit from here, I believe."
Bradley beat Rios into a two-knockdown surrender at 2:49 of Round 9, which allowed him to defend his WBO welterweight title for the first time and insert his name back into some high-profile potential matchups down the road.
Bradley landed 254 punches compared to 81 for Rios and connected on 174 power punches—including 88 to the body—while taking only 67 overall from the beaten challenger.
Rios made news by declaring on TV that the loss would drive him into retirement, but the farewell to the ring only temporarily steered the chatter away from Bradley, whose dance card figures to remain crammed for as long as he stays on the elite level.
With that in mind, we've suggested a handful of top possibilities here, with the permanent invitation to make your thoughts known in the comments section.
7. Juan Manuel Marquez
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If they can't get anyone else in the ring, perhaps Bradley, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez could organize their own round-robin tournament.
Bradley fought Pacquiao for the second time 19 months ago, and it cost him his first WBO welterweight title reign. So it's hardly a shock to think that a guy who's fought Pacquiao four times himself would be interested in a second go-around with Bradley, too.
For those who don't recall, Bradley and Marquez had a pay-per-view showdown of their own in October 2013—10 months after Marquez starched Pacquiao—and Bradley emerged with a tactical and sometimes tedious split decision that made him a top-five commodity on many well-regarded pound-for-pound lists.
Marquez didn't feel he'd gotten a fair shake on the scorecards, and it's that lingering angst that still has him considering Bradley for 2015 (h/t Latin Post). It would be a title fight too, which would provide a chance at the extra weight-class crown that the Mexican veteran covets.
It's old (literally) ground for Bradley to cover, but a guy could do worse than Marquez as a stay-busy foe.
6. Gennady Golovkin
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Though a cadre of foes at 154 and 160 pounds seem loath to approach Gennady Golovkin and his two middleweight championship belts, a welterweight Bradley appears eager to run into the fire.
He described himself to CBSSports.com as a “businessman,” “journeyman” and “throwback” while suggesting he’d be willing to pursue big fights wherever they might be available. He specifically mentioned other fighters’ reticence to get in with a foe who has not gone the distance since 2008.
“Don't nobody want to fight Triple-G,” he said. “Yeah, he's a beast, he's an animal. But s--t, I'm a man. I got balls. I'm a man, I got balls and I got skills. I'll get in there with that big old dude.”
He said he’d be willing to meet Golovkin if the IBF/IBO/WBA champion’s people were to call, and Team Golovkin’s chief executive—promoter Tom Loeffler—told Bleacher Report that it’s indeed an intriguing possibility pending the availability of other potential opponents.
“(Bradley is) one of the few well-known guys who has said he would fight GGG, so it would be something that we would consider,” Loeffler said. “Bradley beat Manny once and beat Marquez, the guy who KO’d Manny, so he definitely has a recognizable name. He wasn’t on our radar screen before he said he wanted to fight GGG.”
When it comes to sheer fight-fan curiosity, no other foe compares.
5. Amir Khan
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Amir Khan is one of those guys.
When it comes to fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao, the Englishman with Pakistani roots is a step above the riff-raff—an attractive opponent but still at the mercy of the bigger name.
With nearly everyone else, though, the former 140-pound kingpin is the one who can call the shots.
So now that Money is retired and Pac-Man is expected to pursue other quarry, it's a chance for Khan to flex his "I'm the A-side" muscle to get a date with a guy like Bradley.
He deemed the Californian worthy of his attention following the latest roadblock with Pacquiao, telling the National that Bradley is an option who at least somewhat piques his interest.
"I already had a backup plan drawn up in case the Pacquiao fight didn’t go to plan,” Khan said. “We are looking at a Danny Garcia rematch. I also would like to fight Tim Bradley; that’s another interesting fight."
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4. Danny Garcia
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Though one can argue Garcia and Bradley are the premier 140-pound champions of the last 10 years, the two men never got together while ruling the junior welterweight ranks.
But if Garcia has titles on his mind these days, old business could make for new recognition.
Bradley held both the WBC and WBO belts during stretches of an unbeaten run from 2008 to 2011, winning the title from Junior Witter and defending it six times before moving up to beat Pacquiao in 2012. Garcia, meanwhile, picked up the vacant WBC crown in 2012 and defended it and the WBA title over five fights before making his welterweight jump official by beating Paulie Malignaggi in August.
Bradley, who lost to Pacquiao in a 2014 rematch, became a 147-pound champion for the second time when Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired and the WBO elevated him from interim to full-fledged champion.
Garcia has said his quest at 147 revolves around championships, and he suggested to Percy Crawford of Fight Hype way back in 2011 that a Bradley matchup would be advantageous.
"If I was to ever fight Bradley in the future, I feel like his head wouldn't come close to me because I'm strong and I hit hard," Garcia said. "I'd hit him with a couple of shots and that would back him right up and make him respect me. He doesn't respect a lot of fighters because he hasn't fought a lot of fighters that can punch."
3. Kell Brook
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Before last December’s disappointment against Diego Chaves, in which Bradley seemed on the short end of a widely disputed draw, there was live chatter that a match with Kell Brook was imminent.
The British fighter had become a 147-pound commodity with a surprise defeat of then-IBF champion Shawn Porter in August 2014, and the promoters for both men had engaged in discussions pending the outcome of Brook’s pursuit of countryman Amir Khan.
“I had some conversations with Eddie Hearn and Kell Brook if he can’t get the Amir Khan fight put together,” Carl Moretti, president of Bradley’s promoter, Top Rank, told BoxingScene.com. “Tim ironically won his first title at 140 against a Brit, so maybe he will have to fight another to win the title at 147.”
Needless to say, the Khan fight still hasn’t occurred. And given that Bradley has declared himself specifically in the big-fight business these days, a match between the two makes even more sense now with two championships on the line than it might have a year ago.
Now that Mayweather has ceded the throne via retirement, these two guys occupy high rungs on the ladder when it comes to claiming succession.
2. Keith Thurman
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At the intersection of fighting the best and capturing belts at 147 pounds, Bradley may just find a guy named Keith Thurman.
The unbeaten Florida-based slugger has developed a reputation as the most avoided commodity in the division, and though the hardware he holds—the WBA's so-called regular title—is dubious at best, a Bradley victory over him would carry legitimate significance.
The two men have sparred intermittently via media in the last year or two, with Thurman telling the Ring as early as April 2013 that "as soon as I get my hands on (Bradley), it’s over."
The sarcastic sparks flew heading into Bradley's match with Chaves, whom Thurman stopped in 10 rounds in July 2013. Dontae's Boxing Nation (warning: link is NSFW) interviewed Thurman as a follow-up to a prior chat with Bradley, in which Desert Storm had suggested he was a superior fighter.
"I'm actually not too sure about my hand speed or my power," Thurman said. "I don't know if my power's real or if people like to lay down for me. Bradley, I think I'm the most overrated fighter you know. If you want to outbox somebody real nice and easy, you should pick me."
1. Manny Pacquiao
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For Pacquiao, things have surely changed over three years.
The Filipino was a streaking multi-division commodity upon meeting Bradley for the first time in June 2012, and even upon dropping a split decision that some considered among the worst ever, he moved on to a big-money revisit with Juan Manuel Marquez.
Bradley, the winner, was left to lesser lights.
Pacquiao evened the official score with Bradley with a more convincing performance in April 2014, but after misfiring in the May 2 showdown with Mayweather and suffering a shoulder injury that’ll ultimately keep him out for the better part of a year, he’ll need a foe to help gauge his comeback.
Bradley could be that guy.
HBO’s Jim Lampley opined after the second fight that a third between the men would someday occur, and that get-together early in 2016 would provide as big a crossroads event as either could construct.
Pacquiao added fuel to the chances of that fire recently, telling Emirates 24/7 (via Sky Sports) that Bradley was on his list of four possible opponents for next spring.
If this were old-school wrestling, sign us up for a loser-leaves-town rubber match.
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