BoztheMadman Posted July 31, 2024 Share Posted July 31, 2024 One of the best welterweights in the 21th century, as well as pound for pound boxers between 2008 and 2016, Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley had a really fine career and only lost twice, to the great Manny Pacquiao. He also holds a victory over the same man, despite many feeling it was controversial back then. Bradley was as tough as they came and could box very well as well as brawl. He had everything but big knockout punch, however he was no featherfist either. He holds wins over Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Junior Witter, Devon Alexander, Kendall Holt, Lamont Peterson, Brandon Rios and Ruslan Provodnikov. Timothy Ray Bradley Jr was born 29 August 1983 in Palm Springs, California, to a father who was a former Marine and who instilled in him the hard discipline that he had been taught in the army. Tim junior grew up in Cathedral City, California, and worked as a dishwasher and a waiter before starting his boxing career. He began boxing at 10 and made the US national team, winning the Under-19 and Golden Gloves tournaments, as well as the 2001 Police Athletic League championship. The 5’6 Bradley turned professional in August 2004, shortly before turning 21, winning his first fight by a TKO 2. On 23 September 2005, he won the vacant world youth welterweight championship by beating Francisco Rincon by UD 10. He defended it twice before opting to go down to 140, where he won the same title next year, stopping Arturo Urena by TKO 3. He again made two defenses, last one against future IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez, before landing a fight against the WBC champion, Junior Witter of England, 10 May 2008 in Nottingham. Witter was 36-1-2, with that sole loss coming against Zab Judah, going the distance. He was coming his biggest victory yet where he knocked out Vivian Harris and was therefore a favorite going into the fight. Bradley the underdog surprised everyone when he dropped Witter in round 6 with an overhand right and went on to win by a close split decision, thus winning his first world belt at the age of 24! He first made a defense against the hard hitting Edner Cherry on 13 September in Biloxi and outboxed the seasoned Cherry to win by wide scores. He then faced Kendall Holt, the WBO champion, in a title unification fight, 4 April 2009 at Bell Centre in Montreal. Holt could crack and showed it when he caught Bradley with a tremendous counter left hook. Known for his toughness, Bradley got up and made it out of the round. He then outboxed Holt for a large part of the fight, which also featured some low blows, before being ruled down again from a right hand in the last round. He held on to win by somewhat close but unanimous scores. This had been his first trial of fire and first time he was down in a fight. He was then stripped of the WBC belt in late April same year, before his next title fight (WBO one) against Nate Campbell ended in a no contest because of a cut eye for Campbell after 3 rounds. He then took on the 27-0 Lamont Peterson, a promising young fighter, on 12 December and beat him by UD after dropping him in the third round. After beating unbeaten Luis Abregu in a non title fight, he faced the new WBC champion Devon Alexander in another unification fight on 29 January 2011 in Pontiac, Michigan. Alexander was considered his main rival in the division and was 21-0, but the fight ended in a technical decision victory for Bradley after 10 rounds, after Alexander got accidentally butted and cut in round 3. Bradley was ahead on all scorecards at the time and so he could call himself the king of 140. However, not long after that, he found himself stripped again for refusing to fight Amir Khan. After stopping Joel Casamayor by TKO 8 in November same year, in what was a WBO-fight only, Bradley decided to enter the welterweight division again. His very first opponent was none other than one of two p4p kings at the time: Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, who held the WBO belt he won from Miguel Cotto. The fight commenced on 9 June 2012 at MGM Grand and Bradley was a 5-1 underdog in his first ever major PPV event. In what would soon become universally condemned as a terrible decision, Bradley went on to achieve his greatest victory ever when he was given a split decision against the Filipino, who hadn’t lost in seven years! All judges had the same score, 115-113. I can only add, having actually scored the fight, that the cries of a robbery were obviously influenced by Pacman’s huge popularity at the time. It was a very close fight and could’ve gone either way, let’s leave it at that. On 16 March next year, Bradley defended his new title against the Russian pitbull, Ruslan Provodnikov. He was down in the 12th round and hurt several times, but fought back and eventually emerged victorious in another controversial but accepted decision, which was unanimous this time. He then signed to fight another legend, Juan Manuel Marquez, aka Dinamita, on 12 October at Thomas and Mack Center. Like the Manny fight, this one was also very close and hard, but in the closing seconds, Bradley managed to send Dinamita staggering backwards with a left uppercut. He then decided to fight Pacquiao again in order to silence all the critics who denied his victory. The fight was held on 12 April 2014, again at MGM Grand, and again the fight was close, but this time Pacquiao was the one that controversially got the victory with too wide scores, 118-110 and 116-112 twice. On 13 December same year, he fought the Argentinian underdog Diego Gabriel Chaves and despite looking like the better man, surprisingly had to settle for a draw as judge Julie Lederman inexplicably gave Chavez the fight and by 116-112 even! That scorecard provoked a great outcry and some demanded she be dismissed from her duty. In 2015 came his two final triumphs, both against famous Mexican-American boxers. First, on 27 June he fought the 26-0 and 5’11 Jessie Vargas, who had been a protege of Floyd Mayweather junior. The fight was at StubHub in Carson and Bradley took that zero away by a dominant victory on all scorecards, winning the interim WBO belt. On 6 July, Mayweather was stripped of his WBO belt for refusing to pay a sanctioning fee for his Manny Pacquiao fight, and so Bradley was promoted into the full champion. On 7 November, he took on the former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios, 33-2-1 at the time, at Thomas & Mack Center. In his final impressive display, he dominated the entire fight before dropping Rios with a body shot in round 9 and then following it up with a barrage of punches to drop him again and bring forth the stoppage. He then fought Pacquiao for the third time on 9 April 2016 at MGM Grand and this time Pacman was much more dominant than in previous fights, dropping Bradley twice and winning in dominant fashion, 116-110 on all scorecards. On 6 August 2017, at the age of 33, Timothy Bradley announced his retirement, with a record of 33 wins, 13 by knockout, 2 losses, 1 draw and 1 no contest. He went on to become a popular color commentator and has his own boxing podcast now. In 2023, he was inducted into the IBHOF. Bradley was known for his vegan diet, which he used up until the Jessie Vargas fight, and which he said gave him the edge in hard fights. He has never been knocked out, despite being down several times. He was surely and still is one of the best and most hardworking boxers of this era and likely ever. One can only wonder what kind of beast he’d be if he had greater power. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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