After not leaving the friendly confines of Southern California for the first 21 fights of his career, Tim Bradley traveled to Nottingham, England last May to dethrone Junior Witter of his WBC jr. welterweight crown. Four months later he defended his belt against Edner Cherry in Biloxi, Mississippi. And then in his last outing he outworked WBO titlist Kendall Holt in Montreal, Canada in April.
Forget Mel Gibson, this is the real ‘Road Warrior’.
Bradley, who faces the always-dangerous Nate Campbell this Saturday night (Showtime, 9 pm, ET/PT) laughs at the thought.
“Yeah, y’know, I’m willing to fight anybody, any place, anywhere, it don’t really matter. My promoter tells me it’s going to be here and I’m like, ‘OK’. It doesn’t matter where a fight takes place because at the end of the day as long as I get that ‘w’ that’s all that matters to me,” Bradley told Maxboxing last week. Now he defends his title just minutes from his Palm Springs roots at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage.”But having a fight now in the hometown, I mean, it’s a dream come true. I never thought I’d be fighting here in my hometown. I never thought that would ever happen because like you said, I’ve been traveling around to England and Canada, Mississippi, but I think it’s good because it gives the East a chance to see me, the Canadians a chance to see me and know me, also the English people. So it’s expanded my fanbase.”
At first, Bradley was cautiously optimistic when he was informed his next bout would take place in his home region.
“I didn’t get too excited at first because what I’ve learned through the past was that if it’s not solid, you don’t have a contract, yet, nothing’s really solid,” said Bradley, who is perhaps looking to move up and fight David Haye in the future. “So when I heard that they were going to try and have it here in my town, I was like, ‘Great’. The first thing they asked me was,’How do you think you’d do?’ And was like, ‘I’ll sell the joint out. What are you talking about, how do you think I’d do?’ So they said they were working on something and once I found out it was going to be here, I was, ‘OK, well, they say it’s going to be here, but I know it’s going to change. I know it’s going to change.’
“Because at the end of the day it’s about whoever is putting up the most money. But then when it was solid, I was just like, ‘Wow! This is amazing.’ I got on the phone and started calling people and letting them know, ‘Get ready, save your money, get your tickets early’ and just started telling everybody about it. It just took off from there but I was also ecstatic. I was like, ‘this is unbelievable.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
But what every boxer must guard against in all the excitement and revelry of a homecoming fight is the being pulled in a million different directions by friends, family and other assorted well-wishers. The 25-year old Bradley has curtailed any threat of distractions by simply making himself a bit harder to reach.
“Well, it’s been hard for you to get in contact with me,” he tells this reporter with a laugh. And he’s right, usually Bradley is easier to find than a Starbucks, but this time around, it took a few attempts to track him down. “It’s been hard for everybody to get in contact with me because I got a personal phone and a business phone and lately I’ve been just turning off my business phone and not really answering all my calls or answering my messages. I’ve pretty much just been limiting my contact and just staying focused and staying home the majority of the time.”
But he can feel the buzz brewing for his bout this weekend. The Palm Springs area isn’t normally associated with world-class boxing, but Bradley-Campbell has become an anticipated event locally.
“Oh, yeah, I’m getting every bit of support from everywhere,” says the always-friendly and affable Bradley. “It doesn’t matter where I go. I can walk on a golf course, people know who I am. It doesn’t matter. I think it’s great that the community is backing me and it’s great because I live in a small community but not everybody knows me. You say, ‘Tim Bradley’ in this community and everybody was just like, ‘Who’s Tim Bradley? I’ve heard of him but I really don’t know him,’ Now, seeing the ads, seeing the newspaper reports and seeing the billboards around town, everybody is embracing me and just saying, ‘Champ, you’re going to do it. We’re going to be there to support you. I’ve got my tickets already. Good luck and God bless you’ and I’m just like, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“So I’m looking forward to seeing how the fans are going to be built up and how much support they’re going to give me to motivate me to win this fight.”
The organizers of this weekend’s card – which also features a bout between Devon Alexander and Junior Witter for the vacant WBC 140-pound strap – say that a capacity crowd of over 3,000 will be in the building. It doesn’t seem like an overwhelming number, but it’s a start. With his crowd-pleasing style and winning personality, you can envision him in the not-too-distant future playing in bigger arenas.
Alex Camponovo, General Manager and Matchmaker for Thompson Boxing Promotions, which co-promotes Bradley alongside Gary Shaw and developed him during his formative years, says “I think so, it would also be a matter of not only having a good headliner – and obviously if Timothy shows the world he’s one of the top guys against Campbell, obviously, he has to get through him first – but if he can showcase himself, not just as a regular boxer but uses a little more of his power and ability in the ring, that’s what sells tickets. I mean, you can be 35-0, but if you don’t have excitement in the way you fight, you can’t really do too much.”
Camponovo says that Bradley’s profile is beginning to expand in the local market. “Timothy is a guy that’s getting to be known, not only in the boxing world, but let’s be honest, in his area, too. He’s never fought in Palm Springs, everybody knows of the kid, but you really have to follow boxing. Now that they see his billboards and they know where he’s fighting, where he’s from and what he’s been able to achieve, he’s been getting great coverage locally. We have all the major network affiliates over here covering him constantly for the past few months. So I think we can create an interesting champion out of Timothy besides just the type of quality fighter he is.”
But first things first. There’s the matter of ‘the Galaxxy Warrior’, who is no stranger to taking undefeated boxers into the deep water and drowning their zeroes. And if the fight is just half as good as a recent conference call between the two participants, where the gloves came off during their verbal sparring, then we’re all in for one helluva battle.
As usual, Campbell has been spitting his usual fire and brimstone. It’s almost as if he’s trying to bully his younger foe.
“Yeah, yeah, I got that vibe,” agreed Bradley. “Nate’s a big talker, I respect him, he respects me. Nate knows what I can do in that ring and I know what Nate can do in that ring. So I mean, I’ve been through the Kendall Holt fight, I’ve lived and learned. I know about all the talking and getting underneath the skin and all that. I went down because of that. So there’s nothing that Nate can tell me and do to me that will get me upset or out of my game plan.”
But this wily ol’ veteran will ask questions of Bradley that have never been asked before, which is just fine.
“I want to see what I can do under pressure,” says the 24-0, Bradley. “I want the world to see what I can do under pressure, and fighting the best fighters in the world brings the best out of me and that’s what we’re doing. In order to be the best – you gotta beat the best and I’m not ducking anybody. I’m looking for the best possible fights, of course, for the money. “And I want to win ’em.”
If he should get past this test, he’ll be on one of the more impressive runs in boxing. And it could lead to bigger and better things.
“Yeah, absolutely,” said his co-promoter, Shaw, “I know Nate Campbell is real and I know Nate Campbell is tough at any weight – I don’t care what weight that guy fights at. So if Timmy beats Kendall Holt and Nate Campbell back-to-back, then you have something really special and to me, I would probably want to go after Amir Khan right after that.”
HOMERS
It was a great sign that Antonio Escalante drew a huge crowd in El Paso, Texas this Friday night as he bludgeoned Cornelius Lock over ten rounds. In my opinion, the first step in rebuilding the boxing business (at least in this country) is to re-establish local boxing markets with local talent that can be consistent attractions. Too much of this business nowadays is about getting to the premium networks as fast as possible and getting the largest license fees, but without the component of developing ticket sellers in non-casino settings, which has created a huge disconnect in the current marketplace.
Putting Bradley back in the Southland was done so with that in mind.
Shaw told Maxboxing this past Thursday, “Truthfully, you’re one of the guys that’s out there always yelling that promoters need to promote more and bring guys to their hometown and build hometown fans and I don’t disagree with that. So we were fortunate enough to go right to the desert where Tim lives. We are 97 or 98-percent sold out. We’ll be sold out by Friday – a week before the fight. And I think that makes for a great crowd, great fans and it’s going to be very exciting.”
As for Chad Dawson, his light heavyweight stalwart, who rematches the tougher-than-leather Glen Johnson on November 7th, Shaw says, “It looks like we’re going to four-wall it in Connecticut.”
Two thoughts on Shaw: First, good for him and good luck (and I hope everyone in those specific areas supports these promotions. You guys wanted boxing to be more readily available, well, here you go.) And secondly, he’s listening to me, of all people?!?! What is he, crazy?
REPEAT?
This scenario to a certain degree, reminds you of the June 27th bout between Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana, where the young up-and-coming star was the headliner at home against a hard-punching veteran on a nationally televised show.
To paraphrase the great philosopher Yogi Berra, could it be d?j? vu all over again?
Bradley gave his thoughts on Ortiz’s meltdown.
“I was just hoping he could hang on. He knocked the guy down and (Maidana) then came back in a split second and knocked him down. I was just hoping he held on, ‘hold on, hold on’, because I know Victor Ortiz is experienced but not in major fights. He ran through Mike Arnaoutis, who’s a great fighter but it’s a different class. It was his first main event, there was a lot of added pressure on him. So seeing that fight, I was like ‘I hope he knows what he’s doing in there. Hold him, grab him’. I was rooting for him because I’m a Victor Ortiz fan. I love watching Victor Ortiz, he brings a lot to the game. He has a great story behind him and he’s a really excellent fighter, a hard puncher. I felt that at any given time he could knock that guy out.”
Ortiz says that he allowed the emotion of the crowd to alter his game-plan and mindset. But Bradley says that will not be a factor come Saturday night, citing one key difference in their career path.
“I’m used to it, I fought in Ontario (California) and I fought most of my fights there. So a lot of the same fans that came from the desert, traveled over there, are going to be there. There’s going to be a couple of new faces, but I’m used to it already. I’ve actually fought in California where people could drive an hour or so to go see me fight. So it’s not a big deal to me. The crowd’s not going to have no effect on me in that ring. They’re going to lift me when I need to be lifted and when it starts getting tough in there, they’re going to root for me. They’re going to bring me on and make me be aggressive and make me fight harder. “But I’ve prepared myself mentally for all of that.”
THE VIPER
Like everyone else, I awoke on Sunday morning to some horrific news – Vernon Forrest had been murdered on Saturday night in Atlanta in an apparent robbery.
There will be a lot written and said about Forrest in the subsequent days, but what always be my most indelible memory of Forrest – even above and beyond his wins over Shane Mosley and his stunning losses that followed to Ricardo Mayorga – was his reaction to his ‘no-contest’ versus Raul Frank in August of 2000, that served as the semi-main to Fernando Vargas’ knockout of Ross Thompson on HBO.
Forrest, a 1992 Olympian, was a talented boxer, but one that was overshadowed in the Main Events stable by the likes of Vargas, Ike Quartey, Pernell Whitaker, Arturo Gatti, David Tua and then-prospects like Zab Judah. His career path was frustratingly slow for him and this fight versus Frank would be his first chance to grab a major world title belt. But this bout for the vacant IBF crown was truncated as a clash of heads in the third round cut Frank and the fight was halted and ruled a no-contest. Forrest would have to wait for his world title and the riches that came with it.
At the post-fight press conference at the Mandalay Bay, Forrest would take the mic and begin to address the media, comparing this disappointment to his Olympic experience in Barcelona eight years before, where he was hampered by an illness and quickly eliminated. Within seconds, Forrest was in tears and nearly inconsolable and he was quickly taken off the dais by his handlers.
That’s how important boxing and his profession was to him. He had big dreams to fulfill and he was in a rush to get to them. The next May he would defeat Frank and finally win his long-awaited title. Soon after he became the first man to defeat Shane Mosley, and from there, he became a constant on the world-class scene, battling through disappointments and physical ailments throughout the process.
He may have left us too soon, but when it came to his career, he did what he set out to do as a young man when he first laced on boxing gloves in Augusta, Georgia.
FINAL FLURRIES
Urbano Antillon, who got stopped by Miguel Acosta, was outfought from the very beginning. He was squared up, had no jab and followed around Acosta constantly, therefore making it easy for Acosta to time him with right hands all night….Say this about Giovanni Segura, for whatever technical deficiencies he has, he has heavy hands…..Not a good look: seeing the suspended trainer Javier Capetillo in Segura’s corner. Even worse look: seeing the suspended Antonio Margarito in the ring with him. That’s head-scratching on many levels…There was an Armando Garcia sighting also, as he was a judge on a few of the ‘Latin Fury’ fights in Mexico. Yes, he’s alive….I still say Bradley-Ortiz can be a big promotion in SoCal down the line….Anyone really surprised that Jamaican sprinters are getting busted for illegal substances? Did you really think that they just suddenly became that much faster than everybody else? Wait till they test their bobsled team….Sorry, I’m just not that enthralled with Amir Khan and his style of boxing. He’s Ivan Khan-deron to me.( Yeah, I went there)….Congrats to Jim Rice, his Hall call was long overdue….As for Rickey Henderson, well, he’s one of my all-time favorites and I believe one of the elite players that ever lived (certainly, by far, the greatest leadoff hitter that ever). This guy stole 66 bases at age 39. That’s just one of many of his remarkable achievements (and he got his 3,000th hit as a Padre!!!)….Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing….
