Tim Bradley’s Huge Contradiction
There seems to be a pattern of retired world champion fighters trading words with current champions. We had Mike Tyson trading jabs with Deontay Wilder, and Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao rekindled their old beef. Recently, Lennox Lewis found himself trapped into an exchange with Anthony Joshua. Next, the pattern brings us to Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley going back and fourth with IBF welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence.
The former two-division world champion is on the record claiming Spence is ducking WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford. That statement would immediately finds its way to the IBF champion, who didn’t take long to respond.
“When the WBC ordered us to fight, he [Bradley] retired.”
Errol Spence Jr – IBF Welterweight Champion
This is where things get good. Bradley spoke with with the media August 17 following the Emanuel Navarrete vs Francisco De Vaca card. Following the WBO bantamweight championship match, Bradley was informed of the reply from the Texas native. The normally-calm former world champion was quite agitated and gave a very questionable explanation.
“He [Spence] is right, the WBC did order the fight but check this out. I fought Manny Pacquiao instead of Errol Spence.
“When the HELL have we been doing business, or anybody from Top Rank, been doing business with Al Haymon?”
Tim Bradley – Retired Five Time Champion
FORGOTTEN DETAILS
To start, the first statement is rather “head-scratching” simply because Bradley fought Pacquiao for a third time in April 2016. The WBC did not order him to face Spence until December 2016. Therefore, how could he have chosen to fight Pacquiao instead when the ordering did not happen until eight months later?
However, the latter statement is the one that has people inside the boxing community puzzled, considering there has been plenty of business being done between the two parties. For one, there was Gary Russell Jr vs Vasyl Lomachenko back in 2014.
Also, Crawford has faced three Haymon-managed fighters: John Molina Jr, Felix Diaz and Amir Khan with the first happening the same month and year the WBC ordered Spence vs Bradley! Lastly, how can anyone forget the long anticipated mega-fight between Floyd “Money” Mayweather vs Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao?
However, let’s return to the original argument that the IBF champion doesn’t want to fight Crawford is flawed. The WBO champion, while speaking with fans on social media, simply responded to a question about believing if indeed Spence is ducking him, “no!”
Also,3kingsboxing affiliate Peptalk UK interviewed Bob Arum in June. When asked whether he spoke with Haymon about the fight, the Top Rank head-honcho stated he had, but made it clear he wasn’t at liberty to say what was discussed.
These are the major FACTS that are working against the former two-division world champion. When it comes to the main reason for what started this whole debacle, the problem is Top Rank is running out of options for the WBO champion.
Spence, on the other hand, has plenty of them if victorious in the unification fight with WBC champion Shawn Porter.
A fight with Pacquiao is a possibility, or as indicated by Spence, he may even look to fight boxing’s biggest star Canelo Alvarez. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya has expressed a desire for making that fight, even offering the IBF champion a career-high payday of $20 million.
There is a huge desire from everyone inside the boxing community of wanting to see these two prime welterweights battle for supremacy of the division. However, we are all going to have to wait and see how things play out.
In the meantime, be very careful in taking in some of the agenda-driven statements some “entities” within the sport may try to propagate! Sometimes, the information just isn’t true!
By: Garrisson Bland
