Much has been made about poor ticket sales for Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley versus Devon Alexander “The Great.” The venue, Silverdome – originally so named because of the glare off its white fiberglass roof – has been criticized. Along with its undefeated fighters. Along with the black community to which Bradley-Alexander should appeal on Jan. 29.

Is such criticism just? Perhaps. But if we’re going to make a fetish of removing prizefights from casino settings and putting them in spots with local interest, we owe it to “The Super Fight” and our sport to suspend judgment and attend the event.

I’ll be there even though getting there is a logistical mess. The fight is not in Detroit. It is in Pontiac, Mich., 35 miles due north.

That means renting a car at the airport. And no, there aren’t many direct flights from South Texas to DTW. There will also be the questions of where the hell the press conference and weigh-in happen. All that, of course, is before you consider the lunacy of traveling from 60-degree days to a spot between Lakes Erie and Huron, in January.

But I want to see Detroit. I want to see if it could possibly be as Charlie LeDuff described it a few months ago in Mother Jones.

“Today—75 years after the beavers disappeared from the Detroit River—‘Detroitism’ means something completely different,” wrote LeDuff. “It means uncertainty and abandonment and psychopathology.”

Psychopathology. In an American city? We like to think such things are kept below the border in abattoirs like Ciudad Juarez.

As always, then, this boxing trip is an excuse to see a city with fresh eyes. Preliminary emails with young locals provide some happy possibilities. They say Detroit is in the midst of a rebirth. It’s not even 40 miles from Ann Arbor, after all, and so many University of Michigan undergrads set loose on an urban center that is “rewilding” – having places abandoned so long they return to their natural state – might just give the place a social consciousness, along with a conscience.

Well, why not? When they graduate, those kids aren’t finding jobs anyway.

But I’m also going to “The Super Fight” to support two undefeated titlists and make a challenge to the community that shaped them.

Timothy Bradley is the favorite among knowledgeable boxing folks – people who actually skip rope and hit heavy bags and know how easily hand-speed can be neutralized when it’s set atop a shaky foundation. Bradley’s style is a relentless one. He is a volume guy, the most exciting kind of fighter. And his matchmaking approach has undergone a recent and refreshing revision.

The year 2010 was about staying undefeated, he said last week on a promotional conference call. This year, conversely, is about making the best fights.

“My biggest goal in boxing is just to be remembered,” Bradley said. “I don’t want to be forgotten about.”

You hear that? It’s the sound of a smart young fighter reviewing the “Money May” bio and deciding it’s a cautionary tale, not an epic. The Bradley-Alexander conference call in some ways felt as though it were marking a reevaluation of Floyd Mayweather’s self-indulgent template. Like a realization that Mayweather’s money will be gone soon enough, but may still outlive his legacy.

A number of folks are now able to see the day when a 30 for 30-type documentary will be made about “The Greatest Fight that Never Was.” On the A-side will be President of the Philippines Many Pacquiao addressing a roiling crowd of one million countrymen. On the B-side, meanwhile, Mayweather will be in a poorly lit gym, working the hand pads with a Golden Gloves runner-up and saying, “Everyone knows I’d a beat ‘Pooch-iao’.”

Devon Alexander does not have Bradley’s loquaciousness, but he has a quiet confidence that is appealing. And he has something else Bradley does not seem to have yet: An ability to sell tickets. Some of that is his promoter. Even in a grieving state, Don King is a master ticket-seller. But some of that, too, is Alexander’s admirable calmness.

Until last week’s call, I’d not given him much of a chance against Bradley. He looked most vulnerable in August against Andriy Kotelnik. His trainer is a loud motivator who seems never to have noticed how alarmingly his charge’s guard strays while jabbing.

But something about Alexander’s demeanor made me rethink things. He was happy to let Bradley play emcee. He knew Bradley was better at talking, and so he let him talk. He seemed eerily comfortable in his role, offering little more than variations on a “now is my time” theme. Alexander might just have the perfect temperament to foil a Desert Storm.

Which leaves us with a challenge of sorts for the black community that shaped Bradley and Alexander. On last week’s conference call, both men slipped a question about what their match – two undefeated African-Americans fighting just north of a city that is 83 percent black – might mean to their community. Bradley said it was a great fight for Americans, not just African-Americans. Alexander said it was a throwback event.

“This is a fight like the old days,” he said. “The greats wanted to fight the best.”

Why would they slip such a question? Maybe because they’re afraid their people won’t show up. Boxing insiders use words like “invisible” when describing the black community and live gates; they may rally round a pay-per-view event every few years, but don’t expect them to fill an arena.

Well, this is a chance to surprise some folks – like they do at Alexander’s fights in St. Louis. This is a chance for Don King to work a crowd as only he knows how. This is a chance to roar a bit and prove to the country Detroit has more to offer than psychopathology.

A few of us will be there to report it, do believe. As it is. However it turns out.

Bart Barry can be reached at bbarry@15rounds.com.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, the January 29 showdown between Jr. Welterweight beltholders, Devon Alexander and Tomothy Bradley will take place at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.

“We’re going to the Silverdome, [outside of] Detroit. It’s done,” Said Gary Shaw who promotes Bradley.

“The two finalists were Atlanta and Detroit and at the end of the day, we felt Detroit was the best place to the put the fight. Detroit is a great fight town and has a rich fight history,” Shaw said of the city that produced several boxing stars, including Thomas Hearns. “We’re excited to go there and give them a great fight with these two great young fighters. HBO has promised to put a lot of muscle behind this fight.”

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, talks have re-heated for a proposed January showdown between 140 lb titlists Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander.

Alexander has already agreed to the January 29 fight as well as a proposed rematch in the late spring.

Bradley was balking that he would have to sign a contract extension with his promoter Gary Shaw.

However, Bradley and his managers, Cameron Dunkin and Michael Miller, have not been able to come to terms with Shaw.

The issue has been Shaw’s demand that Bradley agree to an extension of their promotional contract beyond its May 10 expiration as part of the deal to get the fight with Alexander, which Bradley and his team rejected.

However, the breakthrough came Friday, when the managers said Shaw offered Bradley a two-fight deal — the Alexander fight plus an automatic rematch, win or lose — and agreed to end his demand for a contract extension.

“HBO is willing to do both fights and so are we, as long as the rematch takes place by May,” Miller said. “But we’d give them until June 4.”

“We talked to Tim and he’s interested in the deal, but he wants to talk it over with is wife,” Miller said. “He thinks the money is still short, but he wants the fight. He’s supposed to get back to us Monday.”

“I won’t tell my fighter to sign a long-term agreement before he listens to other offers,” Dunkin said. “But this is going to be Timmy’s call on what he wants to do. He’ll tell us what he wants to do and we’ll go from there.”

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

Widely regarded as the best 140-pound fighter in the world, Timothy Bradley jumped into the Welterweight division with a twelve round unanimous decision over Luis Carlos Abregu in a batt;e of undefeated fighters at the Agua Caliente Hote and Resort in Palm Springs, California

In round one, Bradley suffered a cut over his right eye from an accidental headbutt. Bradley got things going in round two as landed a pair of flush rights on the chin. In round four, Abregu was cut over his right eye from a punch.

In round seven, Bradley bent down to throw a hook to the body but again clashed heads with Abregu and the fighter from Argentina slumped to one knee for just a moment. Sensing that his opponent was hurt, Bradley jumped all over Abregu by landing a furious combination. In round nine, Bradley upped the temp as he landed flush with a a pair of lefts and a good right. After a few rounds that was void of action, the two stood toe to toe which excited the near capacity crowd in the ballroom which saw their man coast to the victory by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112.

Bradley, 147 lbs of Palm Springs, CA is now 26-0. Abregu, 146 1/2 lbs of Argentina is now 29-1.

Alfredo Angulo continued his positive momentum as he scored a first round stoppage over former WBA Super Welterweight champion Joachim Alcine in a bout scheduled for twelve rounds.

Midway through the round Angulo and Alcine got tangled up which left Angulo’s right hand free. Angulo pounded on Alcine that got him hurt. Late in the round Angulo landed a left and a flush right hand that had Alcine out on his feet. Angulo landed three hard punched that was cluminated by a huge left hook and big right which forced referee Lou Moret to stop the bout just one second before the end of the opening frame.

Angulo, 153 1/2 lbs of Mexicali, Mexico is now 19-1 with sixteen knockouts. Alcine, 153 1/2 lbs of Montreal is now 32-2

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, WBA Interim Super Lightweight champion, Marcos Maidana injured his back and his June 19th bout with WBO champion, Timothy Bradley has been postponed.

“Maidana got hurt and the fight will be postponed for about a month,” said Bradley’s promoter Gary Shaw.

“They confirmed that Maidana hurt his back but that he still wants the fight, but that he’s needs roughly 20 days [off],” Shaw said. “They said he still wanted the fight, otherwise, I could have switched back to [Luis Carlos Abregu]. I will take them at their word that it’s Maidana’s back and that he still wants to fight Tim.”

“I’ve been on the phone with HBO but we need to work with HBO and Agua Caliente to find the right date that works,” Shaw said.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, a Jr. Welterweight shown between WBC champion Timothy Bradley and WBA Interimn champion Marcos Maidana is set for June 19th in the Agua Caliente resort in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

“It’s done,” said Gary Shaw, who promotes Bradley. “It’s a tremendous fight. It’s a great fight in a great division. Great for fans, who will definitely see an exciting fight, great for HBO, great for Gary Shaw, Golden Boy, Bradley, Maidana and boxing. It’s great for all of us.”

“He asked if I had a signed agreement from Abregu and when I said I didn’t, he said, ‘I have an idea. Would you fight Maidana?’ I said, ‘In a heartbeat.'” Shaw said. “We talked about it for a few days and when I spoke to Richard we were able to get it worked out and the fight got made.”

“We’re ready to go,” said Cameron Dunkin, Bradley’s manager. “It’s what Tim deserves and what he needs. The other kid [Maidana] deserves this too. It’s a great opportunity for both of them. Tim was so excited when I told him about it. He just went crazy. He sounded like a little kid. It makes you feel good when something like this gets done and your guy is happy.”