By Jake Donovan
As fans continue to salivate over the resurrected welterweight clash between Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios, at least one more major hurdle stands in the way of it becoming a reality.
The top brass at Top Rank—promoter for both fighters—continue to work out details for a clash that is tentatively slated for November 7 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
One of those details surrounds the title at stake; Bradley is the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion, a crown he reclaimed following a 12-round win over Jessie Vargas in June. That fight came with the stipulation that the winner (Bradley) would next face mandatory challenger Sadam Ali, which continues to stand in the way of a Bradley-Rios fight happening any time soon.
The matchup was once mentioned by Hall of Fame promoter and Top Rank founder/CEO Bob Arum as part of a card he planned to stage in United Arab Emirates.
Talks for such a card eventually died down, but the issue of Ali (22-0, 13KOs)—an unbeaten welterweight from Brooklyn who was a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic boxing team—getting next at Bradley (32-1-1, 12KOs) still existed. Arum insisted that the fight wasn't sellable to HBO—the network of preference these days for Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, Ali's promoter—and that he would instead attempt to put together a fight between Bradley and Rios.
That idea eventually faded when neither side could agree on terms, but has since resurfaced from all involved parties meeting in the middle—both fighters agreeing to take a little less and HBO adding significantly more.
However, the issue of Ali awaiting his owed title shot has yet to be resolved. Top Rank was to negotiate a deal that would have Ali and Golden Boy properly compensated in exchange for allowing a Bradley-Rios clash to happen.
Apparently, that hasn't yet taken place. At least that's the version being told by the WBO, who refuses to greenlight the fight until receiving word from Golden Boy and Ali that they can wait until next year for the due title shot.
"(The) WBO hasn't sanctioned (Bradley vs. Rios) and won't until an agreement is reached with Golden Boy (Ali's promoter)," WBO President Francisco 'Paco' Valcarcel reiterated on Monday.
Ali and Rios have both been on the sidelines for most of 2015. Ali hasn't fought since a 10-round win over Francisco 'Chia' Santana in April, coming five months after knocking out Luis Carlos Abregu in his HBO debut last November.
Rios has watched a number of opportunities fall through since forcing Mike Alvarado to quit after the third round of their HBO-televised rubber match in January. Included among his missed opportunities was a chance to face unbeaten welterweight titlist Kell Brook, who will instead face Diego Chaves—who in his last two fights fought to a draw with Bradley and lost by 9th round disqualification to Rios last summer.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com.
Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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