CARSON, Calif. — Timothy Bradley Jr. is in the midst of a balancing act.
The former two-division world titleholder still has goals in boxing. He wants to win a fifth world title, continue strengthening his impressive resume to ensure that he will be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame when his career is over, and make sure that when that career is over he has earned enough money for him and his family — wife and manager Monica Bradley and their five children — to live a lavish lifestyle.
Bradley, who turns 32 in August, is well on his way to accomplishing those goals but then there is the other issue: He’d like to achieve all so he can retire at the expiration of his promotional contract with Top Rank two years from now.
That is Bradley’s frame of mind as he heads into a fight with junior welterweight titlist Jessie Vargas, who is returning to the welterweight division in which he has had several bouts, for an interim title on Saturday night (HBO, 9:45 p.m. ET/PT) at the StubHub Center.
The winner is likely to become the full titleholder after July 3, the WBO-imposed deadline by which champion Floyd Mayweather must pay the sanctioning fee from his May 2 title unification victory against Manny Pacquiao and also vacate his two junior middleweight alphabet belts. Mayweather must do so because the WBO prohibits fighters from holding titles in multiple weight classes at the same time.
In the co-feature, 24-year-old elite featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez (15-0, 14 KOs), a 2008 and 2012 Mexican Olympian, will face southpaw countryman Ruben Tamayo (23-5-4, 15 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round bout. The fight will be the 1,000th to air on HBO since the network began covering boxing when George Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier in 1973 to win the world heavyweight championship.
“I think about it,” Bradley told ESPN.com regarding retiring when his contract expires. “My wife and I sit down with a goal in mind of when I will possibly hang ’em up, after I finish my contract with Top Rank. Things change and goals change along the way. Things happen.”
Monica, who gave birth to their son, Malaki, in March, wants her husband to retire in two years.
“I’d like him to,” she said. “He’s done very, very well in his career but why keep pushing it? He has made good money. But I know he also has goals so I don’t know if he will (retire in two years).”
She is seemingly much more interested in his retirement than he is. She said she thinks about some of the hard fights he has been in and that it might be enough already. It is impossible to ignore the massive punishment — and debilitating concussion followed by a difficult recovery — he suffered in a decision win to retain a welterweight belt against Ruslan Provodnikov, also at the StubHub Center, in the 2013 fight of the year.
After facing Provodnikov, Bradley performed brilliantly in a decision win against future Hall of Famer Juan Manuel Marquez but the following two fights did not go well. In April 2014, Bradley was outclassed in his rematch with Pacquiao, two years after being given one of the most controversial split decisions in boxing history against him. In December, Bradley was held to a draw against Diego Chaves, although most thought Bradley won.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he is helping Bradley prepare for life after the ring by getting him involved in broadcasting. Bradley serves as the analyst on Top Rank’s series on truTV, which he has shown himself to be good at.
“We’re trying to get him involved in announcing so he can stay in the sport,” Arum said. “It’s a tough, tough sport. I think once these guys like Bradley accumulate what they feel is enough money, it’s good to walk away. You don’t want them to get hurt, you [don’t] want them to have any kind of damage that affects him in later life. So I would encourage him when he feels he’s made enough to hang up the gloves.”
Bradley said he has been on board with the retirement plan until he goes to the gym and begins training for his next fight, causing him to reconsider.
“I start preparing for my next fight and I feel I can still do this,” Bradley said. “I can still fight. I’m still fighting at the top level. I still got it. That being said, if I meet my goal financially then I might just hang ’em up. I have to meet my goal financially and make sure the family is set for the rest of our lives and I am happy. I think I can do that in two years.
“I want to win another world championship at 147 and at 154 and then I’d even go to 160 for the right type of fight. I’d even fight Gennady Golovkin. I’m willing to face the best fighters out of there. I’m chasing the Hall of Fame. I want the best guys on my resume.”
Timothy Bradley Jr.
“I don’t want to state my goal because I don’t want people to know my business but I want to not have to come back to the ring because I’m making enough money monthly to do what I want, go on vacation twice a month if I want and still pay the bills and send the kids to college.”
Bradley (31-1-1, 12 KOs), of Palm Springs, California, has earned millions, including purses of $5 million apiece for the fights with Pacquiao, $4.1 million against Marquez and $2 million against Chaves. He has earned other seven-figure purses as well, including another coming his way Saturday. But he clearly wants more to reach the goal he has set.
“After paying taxes on that type of money and buying things — not stupid things, I mean homes and investments — it comes and it goes,” Bradley said. “You want to definitely put enough away and we have. Like if I wanted to retire right now I could and we could live comfortable. But I want to live lavish, relaxed. I don’t want to think about money because it’s there and I can say, ‘It’s there, baby, let’s go on vacation.’ We gonna fly first class the rest of our life. I can go buy her a $2,000 purse and not think about it. When I leave the game I will be set up.”
But if the Hall of Fame is also a goal, he might need more than two years to do enough to get in. His resume is already strong. Besides the wins against Marquez and Pacquiao (no matter how disputed it is), he won his first world title on the road in England against Junior Witter. He later unified two titles at junior welterweight. He owns a near-shutout victory against a prime Lamont Peterson. He unified belts again with a victory against Devon Alexander in their heavily hyped showdown and knocked out Joel Casamayor, albeit a faded version of him.
“I want to win another world championship at 147 and at 154 and then I’d even go to 160 for the right type of fight. I’d even fight Gennady Golovkin,” Bradley said of the middleweight titleholder and knockout machine, who is much bigger than him. “I’m willing to face the best fighters out of there. I’m chasing the Hall of Fame. I want the best guys on my resume.”
Said Arum, “He has a tough fight with Jessie Vargas, who is coming to make a name for himself by hoping to defeat Timothy Bradley, but Tim looks to the future. He knows that he will fight anybody that’s put in front of him so when he says bring on this great middleweight champion ‘GGG’ Golovkin, people might laugh because Tim is somewhat smaller than Golovkin. But I’m not laughing and none of you should laugh because I wouldn’t bet against Tim Bradley against anyone, because with his grit and determination and guts, he can fight anybody that he says he can.”
Bradley said that when it comes time for his Hall of Fame candidacy to be considered five years after he retires he wants it to be a no-brainer election.
“I don’t want them to think twice. I want them to say this guy belongs in the Hall of Fame, period,” he said. “I want them to say I was a true fighter, a true warrior. That’s my ultimate goal, to become a Hall of Famer.”
Arum, who is in the HOF, said he thinks Bradley has already done enough to merit election.
“I think he is a Hall of Famer. I would vote for him,” Arum said.
Bradley said the goal of making the Hall of Fame has driven him throughout training camp.
“The Hall of Fame has been the whole motive for that camp,” Bradley said. “They’ve been screaming in the camp, ‘Hall of Fame! Hall of Fame!’ My father (Ray Bradley) always says, ‘If you do something be the best, not just another person doing it. You want to be remembered son, so go 110 percent and believe in yourself.’ I’ve always lived by it. I want to be great. I want to be remembered. So that’s my ultimate goal, to be in the Hall of Fame and you do that by fighting the best guys. I don’t shy away from anybody.”
Vargas (26-0, 9 KOs), 26, of Las Vegas, is younger, has a four-inch height advantage and doesn’t know how to lose. That also motivates Bradley.
“We fighting another young, tough guy, undefeated, another champion on the resume. I am highly motivated for this fight. Jessie Vargas is a real credible opponent,” Bradley said. “He’s undefeated. I want to be the one to put the first loss on his record.” He has another motivation against Vargas as well.
“I’m a two-division world champion but I’ve got four world championships,” he said. “This will be the fifth. I’m going for five. I’m excited because this belt is for my newborn son. I got a vision in mind of what I want my Christmas card to look like.
“I want all my kids wearing a strap. I’m envisioning that in my head and that’s going to make me fight even harder.”
