By Vitali Shaposhnikov: Timothy Bradley, despite being confident that he will succeed in dethroning Manny Pacquiao this Saturday night, doesn’t believe that a victory would provide him with an option to face Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“Mayweather won’t fight me if I beat Pacquiao. Mayweather is a businessman. That’s it. I don’t think Mayweather would think he’d lose, but as far as business goes, he won’t take that fight right away. He’ll say, ‘Oh, you’ve still got a lot to prove, Bradley.’ You know how it goes,” stated Bradley in a recent interview. (http://espn.go.com/blog/boxing/post/_/id/1266/no-floyd-fight-for-bradley-either)
I can see where Bradley is coming from, and knowing how Mayweather Jr. thinks and operates, in general, Bradley would be absolutely right. In this case on the other hand, I think that if such a scenario arises, Floyd would take this fight without any hesitation.
Why not beat the man who dethroned your long time rival? I don’t believe that Mayweather Jr. would have much trouble with Bradley. Styles make fights, and stylistically, Floyd wins in every scenario I can come up with. And of course it’s not only a tremendous payday for Floyd, but a fight he can take with a possibility of a bout against Pacquiao right after.
As far as Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. goes, Bradley is over it: “I don’t want to see it, I’m over it. It should have happened years ago. I don’t care about the fight. You’ll say, ‘Oh, you’re just saying that because you’re fighting him, Bradley.’ No, I lost interest. Every time they try to make the fight, it never happens. There’s always an excuse. They’re never going to fight, period. Floyd is going to have to give, or Manny’s going to have to give. They’re going to have to meet in the middle, and I don’t think they’re capable of doing that.”
Bradley is certainly thinking like a boxing fan and not a fighter. He speaks for many boxing fans out there, and like knows more about the contractual game than most of us do. Something had got to give to make that fight a reality. Bradley is over it, nonetheless if the fight actually happens, he will be glued to the TV or his seat just like the rest of the world.