Here’s how I’d planned it. Timothy Bradley might be my favorite American prizefighter and so why not write a column mimicking his style with relentless sentences words upon accurate words and rare combinations with no punctuation or pause? For Luis Carlos Abregu: Small words, lots of breaks, some heft. The conclusion seeing Bradley’s varied run-on sentences overwhelm Abregu’s short phrases by the 12th paragraph.
Then reality intervened. The fight didn’t correspond to expectations. Let’s explore why not.
Saturday, Bradley, the man widely recognized as the world’s best junior welterweight, made an ill-advised welterweight fight with Argentina’s Luis Carlos Abregu at Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Bradley decisioned Abregu by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112. The match marked Bradley’s debut on HBO.
That seems like part of the problem. After five intriguing, 140-pound matches on Showtime – an upset of titlist Junior Witter followed by victories over Edner Cherry, Kendall Holt, Nate Campbell (later declared a no contest), and Lamont Peterson – Bradley arrived at HBO and made a dull fight. Until Saturday, Bradley, a forward-pressing volume puncher whose offense can double as defense, seemed incapable of a dull fight.
Recently I read “Only the Ring Was Square” by Teddy Brenner, Madison Square Garden’s longtime matchmaker. His responsibilities were several. He always had to fill the Garden. And he often had to satisfy whichever television network broadcasted from the Garden. He was obligated not to managers or fighters but fans and viewers. That book raised some questions of particular relevance Saturday.
Does HBO have an in-house matchmaker? If so, where is he? If not, why not?
Matchmaker or no, why did HBO let Bradley fight Saturday at welterweight? The network has feinted at the possibility of a junior-welterweight tournament similar to Showtime’s acclaimed “Super Six.” HBO has now showcased all five of the hypothetical tournament’s four participants – Bradley, Devon Alexander, Amir Khan, Marcos Maidana and Victor Ortiz (alternate). And yet, there was Bradley at welterweight, Saturday.
Bradley’s people want their guy in the Plan B sweepstakes. They’d love for Bradley to fight either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather this fall, since those two won’t fight each other. A fight with either guy would bring Bradley, and his handlers, a windfall. And it would have to happen at 147 pounds.
Let’s go on the record right here: It’s a bad idea.
Pacquiao’s next opponent will be a Top Rank fighter. This is not news. That leaves Mayweather. This is not good news.
Here’s the calculus. Bradley was unable to hurt Abregu more than twice in 12 rounds. Shane Mosley would not have needed five rounds to stop Abregu. In 12 chances, Mosley did not win three rounds against Mayweather. There’s no chance Bradley, right now, gives Mayweather a competitive match at welterweight. No chance at all.
Did Bradley look slow and tentative enough Saturday to leapfrog to the top of “Money May’s” prospective-opponents list? Quite possibly, and quite unfortunately.
Gone was Bradley’s frantic pressure. Gone was his quickness. Gone was his fearlessness. In their stead was a talented boxer who’d seen more complicated styles than Abregu’s and who determined he was safer outside it than in.
After the fight, Bradley said Kendall Holt hit harder than Abregu. Bradley didn’t fight that way. In the fight’s fourth minute, Bradley saw Abregu’s one enormous flaw, but he did little to exploit it in the 32 minutes that followed. That flaw was Abregu’s left hand. The Argentine brought his jab back lazy and low. Bradley stepped into him with a fantastic right cross in round 2 and then left things alone after that.
Abregu cocked punches from his own waistband and returned his hands there. The times Bradley committed to precise combinations from inside, he found Abregu. The rest of the time, Bradley either stayed outside and threw fewer punches or got in manic exchanges with Abregu and tasted enough power to back off.
Blame the weight. The additional seven pounds on Bradley rendered him slower, less confident in his own quickness. The additional seven pounds on Bradley’s opponent meant even deflected punches hurt Bradley more than square shots did at junior welterweight.
The fight comprised no drama. There was no building narrative or set of basic questions for the fighters to answer. At best there was the suspense of wondering if Bradley might get sloppy and give Abregu a chance at one leveling blow. That doesn’t read like a suspenseful foundation because it wasn’t.
Which returns us to the question of why this fight happened. If we’re going to suspend disbelief and say no one wants to fight Bradley at 140 pounds, we’re still left with a question of why Bradley’s debut at welterweight was with a guy who barely cracks the Top 30. Here’s a theory, in retrospect: Timothy Bradley is only a Top 20 welterweight.
That might be the best development yet for the Bradley brand. He’s a good name opponent – a legitimate champion till proven otherwise at junior welterweight – for a 147-pounder with an aversion to risk. Chances are good we’ll look back at last January as the month Mayweather-Pacquiao came closest to fruition. Even if Mayweather doesn’t fight again till 2011, he’s going to need an opponent next May. Bradley could triple his previous purses against Mayweather. Good for the Bradley brand. Terrible for the Bradley legacy.
If Bradley’s handlers care at all about legacy, they’ll send their guy back to 140 pounds and make the concessions that make HBO’s junior-welterweight tournament a reality – with their guy its favorite. Surely that’s why HBO televised Bradley, Saturday.
Then, all HBO would need is a plan and a matchmaker. Because a lackluster showing by Bradley at welterweight has to have been the craziest possible way to create demand for a junior-welterweight series.
Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter.com/bartbarry
