Las Vegas – Timothy Bradley battled to a split-decision triumph over Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday to retain his World Boxing Organization welterweight title. Bradley remained unbeaten, and denied 40-year-old Marquez a world title in a fifth weight class.
The bout featured the last two fighters to beat Filipino ring hero Manny Pacquiao going head-to-head in a close, tactical contest. To the jeers of a pro-Marquez crowd at the Thomas and Mack Center, two judges awarded the bout to Bradley, 116-112 and 115-113, while the third judge saw it 115-113 for Marquez. Bradley almost sent Marquez down with a left hook in the closing seconds of the 12th.
The 30-year-old US champion – 10 years younger than Marquez – was the aggressor through much of the fight, but he avoided the kind of brutal slugfest he endured in a unanimous decision victory over Ruslan Provodnikov in March that left him nursing a concussion. Even so, Bradley said this decision offered no room for the kind of argument that greeted his controversial victory over Pacquiao in June of last year.
"That was my ticket to the Boxing Hall of Fame,” Bradley said. “It’s the crowning point of my career so far. (Marquez) is a great fighter. I beat a great champion. He never touched me. I gave him a boxing lesson. I’ll fight anyone, including a bull.”