By Victor Salazar
Olympian Sadam Ali (22-0,13 KO's) has had a good run as of late since becoming a part of the Golden Boy Promotions roster. With wins over Francisco Santana and Luis Carlos Abregu, Ali is making noise in the welterweight division.
The World Boxing Organization recently ordered Timothy Bradley and Jessie Vargas to fight for the vacant WBO welterweight title. The winner of that match, which takes place on June 27th, was ordered to face Ali in their first defense.
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is very interested in staging a fight between Ali and the Bradley/Vargas winner.
Ali wants that fight but will likely have in interim fight in between facing the winner of Bradley-Vargas.
“It’s going to be a great fight (Bradley-Vargas) and that’s what they’re talking about it,” Ali told BoxingScene.com about possibly facing the winner of Bradley-Vargas. “I don’t know who comes out the victor but it’d be a great opportunity to fight the winner. Of course fighting someone like Tim Bradley who’s an amazing fighter, of course I would like that. Nothing is 100 percent yet but I think I might have a tune-up fight before that and then go into that fight.”
Arum has told several media outlets that he would love to stage Ali vs. the Bradley-Vargas winner in Dubai. Being of Yemen descent, which is not too far from the United Arab Emirates, a chance to fight for a title so close to home is something Ali can’t pass up
“It came by surprise but it all sounds great to me to go to Dubai,” Ali said. I’ve never been there and I always wanted to go there and going there to fight for a world title. How could I say no to that.”
Top Rank and Golden Boy have been staging fights together on more consistent basis and a fight between Ali and the winner of Bradley-Vargas would be another co-promotion. A year ago, it wasn’t very likely that fights between the two entities would happen. Ali says he saw it all playing out and it’s only a matter of time before the big fights start happening.
“There’s still a cold war but I like to think positive,” Ali stated. “But I see fights like this happening, it was only a matter of time for some of these fights started happening.
As for his return date, Ali says, “I expect to return in September than go into the winner of Bradley-Vargas, maybe not this year or maybe early next year.”