By Brent Matteo Alderson
Timothy Bradley is scheduled to fight WBC 140-pound champ Junior Witter in England on a special edition of Shobox. Bradley had been scheduled to face Jose Luis Castillo in a title eliminator on the undercard of Maskaev-Peters in March, but Castillo couldn’t make weight and Bradley automatically became the WBC’s mandatory contender.
Bradley is eager to receive his first title opportunity and commented, “I’ve always wanted that green belt, that’s my dream, and it’s going to happen on May 10th I’ve been working hard, I can’t wait.”
Bradley is from the Coachella Valley area, the same place that produced Antonio and Julio Diaz, and he come up through the professional ranks under the promotional umbrella of Thompson Boxing with the majority of his fights either taking place at the Double Tree Hotel in Ontario, California or at Thompson’s Corona site. In fact Bradley has never fought outside of the confines of California in compiling a record of 21-0 (11).
On May 10, Bradley just isn’t going to fight outside of California for the first time, he’s going to leave the continent and travel across the pond to face one of world’s best 140 pounders in Junior Witter, who compiled an impressive 36-1 (21) record during his eleven-year career and has beaten a number of note worthy opponents such as DeMarcus Corley and Vivian Harris.
Alex Camponovo, the matchmaker for Thompson boxing acknowledges the difficulty of dethroning a fighter of Witter’s caliber on foreign soil and noted “It’s obvious that Witter is an improved fighter and his style is very unique. He’s crafty, I guess you could say he’s like a polished Naseem Hamed. At the same time you could label him inconsistent. He’s ring savvy and experienced, but some times he doesn’t look that impressive and then he looked so destructive in knocking out Vivian Harris in his last fight.”
Camponovo declined to disclose the amount of Bradley’s purse or divulge the name of his sparring partners, but admitted that it’s always a bit challenging finding sparring partners that can emulate tricky southpaws. The match maker also noted that Bradley would arrive in Great Britain a week before the fight.
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2006, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?” Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com