By Keith Idec
Timothy Bradley’s last appearance as a full-blown welterweight didn’t exactly amount to the most impressive performance of his career.
The unbeaten Bradley still would welcome a permanent move up from junior welterweight, maybe as soon as the fight following his 140-pound title defense against Joel Casamayor on Nov. 12 in Las Vegas.
“For great opportunities, I would move up to 147,” Bradley said. “One-forty is getting kind of tight for me to make the weight. If there’s a great fight at 140, why not? But I would be very comfortable fighting at 147 right now.”
Bradley has made it clear that he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr., but those high-profile, profitable fights aren’t the only reasons the WBO 140-pound champion is seriously considering the move to welterweight.
“I am 28 right now and I have to train a lot and run a lot to get this weight off,” said Bradley, of Palm Springs, Calif. “I probably walk around right now at five-percent body fat. I am getting older now and would love to move up. If I have something at 140 that I need to take care of — because I am the champ at 140 — then I’ll do it. No problem.”
Bradley (27-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC) is generally recognized as the top 140-pound boxer in the sport, though a fight against WBA champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KOs) might’ve eliminated any lingering doubt. He has been a junior welterweight world champion since he upset England’s Junior Witter (40-5-2, 22 KOs) by split decision in May 2008 and left Nottingham, England, with the WBC title.
His only non-junior welterweight title fight since he dethroned Witter was a 12-round, unanimous decision defeat of Argentina’s Carlos Abregu (30-1, 24 KOs) in July 2010. Bradley defeated the previously unbeaten Abregu on all three scorecards (118-110, 117-111, 116-112) in that HBO bout and proved he could take punches from a hard-hitting, bigger boxer, yet even Bradley admitted he wasn’t particularly pleased with that welterweight performance.
Keith Idec covers boxing for the Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.