[Grantland] Will Boxing Ever Forgive Tim Bradley?

[Suavecito80]

Pac turds will never forgive him even though he had nothing to do with the way the fight was scored. The fight was also a lot closer than people think. Denial is a hell of a drug.

[Prince_Pugilist]

There was a time, not so long ago, that Bradley respected the sport and in turn, he earned his title shot the hard way. He id his duty against the Camarenas and the Vazquezs of the sport then traveled into the proverbial Lion's den to face the WBC champ Junior Witter.

I still think that was his best performance to date, in terms of important and relevance. He became a legitimate player in the 140lb scene, not to mention winning a world title away from home against an experienced veteran of the sport. I think it's fair to say that throughout 08-09 Bradley fought some of the best guys in his division and he beat them, even unifying the division against another seasoned pro. Bradley suffered a KD against Holt and came roaring back.

Yet in all that time, facing some of the top guys around, fans didn't exactly flock to a Bradley fight. To put it simply, his style wasn't exactly eye catching or elegant and his ******* use of head butts and elbows made for messy fights. Add to that a lack of a bombastic personality and Bradley should have realised it could/would never be a major PPV star and needed to stay active and keep taking high risk, low reward (financially speaking) fights to get himself into a position where he could fight the best.

Amir Khan presented Bradley with his career high payday and the best possible exposure to a more main stream audience...but Bradley publicly moved away from the bout. He fought only once in 2010 against a nobody WW in Abregu. He should have used that time to fight more often but he just didn't. Subsequent fights against Casamayor and Devon were simply horrendous.

Bradley was waiting around for a big payday to drop into his lap and miraculously it did. The Pacquiao fight was big for him but non existent for most casual fans who had never heard of the Desert Storm. Pacquiao won in the eyes of most and since then Bradley has again gone into the "boxing owes me big money" mode, rather than trying to earn that big pay day.

Bradley has felt that he is entitled to the biggest fights without actually making a name for himself. He needs to learn that in boxing, no one is ever "owed" anything.

P.S. Boxing seems to have humbled Bradley to a certain extent. He is now fully understanding the economics behind "making it big". The Provodnikov fight is a massive slap in the face. From 2.3 million to a fraction of that in mere months. If you don't treat the game with respect, this sport will slaughter you.

[Dr Rumack]

I'm no Pac hater and I think JMM-Pac 3 was more of a robbery than Pac-Bradley.

The overwhelmingly pro-Pac crowd had a huge influence on how people saw that fight. Pac would throw wild, aimless flurries and the crowd would go nuts. Bradley would land combinations and there wouldn't be a sound. HBO's commentary reached a new low that night but they were as influenced by the crowd as anyone else I guess.

Bradley didn't have the power to ever hurt Manny, but he outworked him and controlled him for huge stretches of the fight. What skewed people's perceptions of the fight was the illusion that Pac was doing high quality work in those short bursts near the end of the rounds. You realise he was landing little or nothing during those flurries of activites and suddenly the fight looks very different.

[Prince_Pugilist]

Bradley didn't out work Pacquiao. I think the compubox numbers will tell you that. You can make the argument that Tim had a good performance, which I think he did but making claims that he controlled the fight are as ridiculous as those who say Cotto possibly beat Mayweather. Pacquiao was in charge almost from the opening bell and I think he won a minimum of 8 rounds.

[Cinci Champ]

i think people hating bradley for the judges bad decision is ridiculous. of course he aint gonna admit he lost or give the belt back and for us to expect him to do so is just dumb. no one would do that not even manny. people are just blinded because they are fans of manny if it was floyd that got robbed people would defend bradley and even defend the decision i would hope boxing will forgive bradley. manny just needs to fight him again period

[Dr Rumack]

Bradley didn't out work Pacquiao. I think the compubox numbers will tell you that. You can make the argument that Tim had a good performance, which I think he did but making claims that he controlled the fight are as ridiculous as those who say Cotto possibly beat Mayweather. Pacquiao was in charge almost from the opening bell and I think he won a minimum of 8 rounds.

In the second half of the fight, Manny was lunging and over-extending himself every bit as bad as he was against JMM the previous November. Bradley was controlling the distance, making Manny reach, and then stepping around him and scoring himself.

I'm not saying Bradley's work was hugely impressive, but Pacquiao's was no better. The difference was Bradley was working for three minutes throughout, and Manny spent the second half of the fight plodding around after Bradley for at least two minutes of every round.

[Rome-By-Ko]

There was a time, not so long ago, that Bradley respected the sport and in turn, he earned his title shot the hard way. He id his duty against the Camarenas and the Vazquezs of the sport then traveled into the proverbial Lion's den to face the WBC champ Junior Witter.

I still think that was his best performance to date, in terms of important and relevance. He became a legitimate player in the 140lb scene, not to mention winning a world title away from home against an experienced veteran of the sport. I think it's fair to say that throughout 08-09 Bradley fought some of the best guys in his division and he beat them, even unifying the division against another seasoned pro. Bradley suffered a KD against Holt and came roaring back.

Yet in all that time, facing some of the top guys around, fans didn't exactly flock to a Bradley fight. To put it simply, his style wasn't exactly eye catching or elegant and his ******* use of head butts and elbows made for messy fights. Add to that a lack of a bombastic personality and Bradley should have realised it could/would never be a major PPV star and needed to stay active and keep taking high risk, low reward (financially speaking) fights to get himself into a position where he could fight the best.

Amir Khan presented Bradley with his career high payday and the best possible exposure to a more main stream audience...but Bradley publicly moved away from the bout. He fought only once in 2010 against a nobody WW in Abregu. He should have used that time to fight more often but he just didn't. Subsequent fights against Casamayor and Devon were simply horrendous.

Bradley was waiting around for a big payday to drop into his lap and miraculously it did. The Pacquiao fight was big for him but non existent for most casual fans who had never heard of the Desert Storm. Pacquiao won in the eyes of most and since then Bradley has again gone into the "boxing owes me big money" mode, rather than trying to earn that big pay day.

Bradley has felt that he is entitled to the biggest fights without actually making a name for himself. He needs to learn that in boxing, no one is ever "owed" anything.

P.S. Boxing seems to have humbled Bradley to a certain extent. He is now fully understanding the economics behind "making it big". The Provodnikov fight is a massive slap in the face. From 2.3 million to a fraction of that in mere months. If you don't treat the game with respect, this sport will slaughter you.

Your post started off good, then ya time lines got mix up..Then you missed overall big picture altogether..

[Bermuda]

not bradley's fault that he was awarded one of the biggest most blatant gifts in boxing history...but he did act like an idiot claiming he dominated pac, pac was damaged goods going into the 4th marquez fight, he's a real champ, etc.

[S. Saddler 1310]

There was a time, not so long ago, that Bradley respected the sport and in turn, he earned his title shot the hard way. He id his duty against the Camarenas and the Vazquezs of the sport then traveled into the proverbial Lion's den to face the WBC champ Junior Witter.

I still think that was his best performance to date, in terms of important and relevance. He became a legitimate player in the 140lb scene, not to mention winning a world title away from home against an experienced veteran of the sport. I think it's fair to say that throughout 08-09 Bradley fought some of the best guys in his division and he beat them, even unifying the division against another seasoned pro. Bradley suffered a KD against Holt and came roaring back.

Yet in all that time, facing some of the top guys around, fans didn't exactly flock to a Bradley fight. To put it simply, his style wasn't exactly eye catching or elegant and his ******* use of head butts and elbows made for messy fights. Add to that a lack of a bombastic personality and Bradley should have realised it could/would never be a major PPV star and needed to stay active and keep taking high risk, low reward (financially speaking) fights to get himself into a position where he could fight the best.

Amir Khan presented Bradley with his career high payday and the best possible exposure to a more main stream audience...but Bradley publicly moved away from the bout. He fought only once in 2010 against a nobody WW in Abregu. He should have used that time to fight more often but he just didn't. Subsequent fights against Casamayor and Devon were simply horrendous.

Bradley was waiting around for a big payday to drop into his lap and miraculously it did. The Pacquiao fight was big for him but non existent for most casual fans who had never heard of the Desert Storm. Pacquiao won in the eyes of most and since then Bradley has again gone into the "boxing owes me big money" mode, rather than trying to earn that big pay day.

Bradley has felt that he is entitled to the biggest fights without actually making a name for himself. He needs to learn that in boxing, no one is ever "owed" anything.

P.S. Boxing seems to have humbled Bradley to a certain extent. He is now fully understanding the economics behind "making it big". The Provodnikov fight is a massive slap in the face. From 2.3 million to a fraction of that in mere months. If you don't treat the game with respect, this sport will slaughter you.

i don't agree wholly with your perspective, and your version of events is a little jumbled, but the post read well and you made some fair comments. i agree that Bradley needs to just get active now and not wait for paydays/big fights to come to him. i guess he realized that, too, because he's fighting Provodnikov.


and i agree with you that Witter may stand as Bradley's finest display even now, five years on. i've praised his performance in that fight so often that it pains me slightly to regurgitate, but here goes.

what i found so impressive was not so much the opposition (although it was good, tricky, durable opposition), but rather the manner in which Bradley handled it. i'd never seen anyone flip the script on Witter and play him at his own game the way Bradley did. he was an extremely awkward guy who liked to have his own way, so that he'd frustrate you and make you look bad even if you beat him, but Bradley turned the tables, out-chessed him, out-frustrated him and ultimately took over the fight and looked dominant. nobody else who beat Witter looked so successful doing so. that he did it away from home, in a situation where he had to be convincing, just emboldened that.

quite a special, notable performance, relative to the level it was achieved at.

[John Barron]

Pac turds will never forgive him even though he had nothing to do with the way the fight was scored. The fight was also a lot closer than people think. Denial is a hell of a drug.

and /thread