Last night I took a deep look at the future of WBC and WBO junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley. Bradley had mentioned last weekend, following his technical nod over former titlist Devon Alexander, that he was open to facing the likes of Amir Khan, Marcos Maidana and Manny Pacquiao in the very near future.
All three men would make for engaging foes in their own unique ways. In December Khan defended his WBA junior welterweight crown against Marcos Maidana in one of 2010’s most colorful bouts while Pacquiao is regarded as the sport’s premier fighter given his tremendous run of success and rise in weight in recent years.
One man who feels that Khan will get the golden ticket to challenge the Palm Springs’ born Bradley is the Bolton fighter’s chief trainer Freddie Roach, who began working with the 24-year old shortly after his September 2009 shock loss to Breidis Prescott. During an interview with OnTheGrindBoxing.com, Roach revealed that he is going to be studying the Bradley-Alexander fight because he has feeling that a Khan-Bradley matchup may be right around the corner.
“I have the fight recorded because I think that Bradley might be our next opponent with Amir but I have no interest in Alexander. I’ll watch it but I wasn’t too excited about that fight anyways,” said a candid Roach.
Khan is next slated to see action on April 16th and the process of selecting an opponent has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride. The names of European champion Paul McCloskey and contender Lamont Peterson have been in the mix but nothing is set as of yet. Khan is making just as much headlines for his well-publicized split with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza as his next fight itself.
Roach wasn’t able to take in the Bradley-Alexander fight because he was in Culiacan, Mexico guiding Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to victory over Billy Lyell.
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at [email protected]
