Timothy Bradley has signed with Top Rank and will be fighting on the Pacquiao-Marquez III undercard, no doubt with an eye to matching ?Desert Storm? with Pacquiao in 2012. TCS speculated about this possibility a few months ago in The Bradley Affair: Tim Bradley & the Manny Pacquiao Factor. Although Bradley is currently mired in litigation with his ex-promoter, the chronically litigious Gary Shaw, something will be worked out to the benefit of all. Since Shaw?along with his cultural anthropologist and co-discoverer of Puerto Ricans, Lou DiBella?operates on the basis of making money without lifting nary a finger, he will probably drop his lawsuit against Bradley in exchange for a step aside fee or some future accommodation on a Top Rank card.
Unfortunately, Bradley will be facing an ossified Joel Casamayor, a significant miscalculation by Top Rank, since Casamayor is not only ready for radio carbon dating, but he is also almost guaranteed to produce a stinker. Showcasing Bradley in a bout that promises to be as dull and as ugly as the prose of boxingtribulation.com seems counterproductive. If competitive merit is not a factor in his return, Bradley ought to be facing someone who will at least provide a few sparks?someone like Ruslan Provodnikov, for example, or Josesito Lopez, who was unlucky in dropping a decision to Jessie Vargas two weeks ago. A Bradley-Casamayor maul-a-thon will mar the Pacquiao-Marquez III undercard and will do little to sell Bradley as a future opponent for Pacquiao.
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The WBO, one of the perpetually maligned sanctioning bodies, apparently recognizes what Keith Kizer, Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, does not: That Joe Cortez is a bumbling fool. Cortez, who is all Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rolled into one when it comes to boxing, has been pulled as the third man for the Donnie Nietes-Ramon Garcia Hirales bout next week in the Philippines and has been replaced by Robert Byrd. If only Kizer?whose disinterest in bettors, fans, P-P-V consumers, and fighters is almost palpable?had that kind of common sense. Much has been written over the last two weeks about Cortez and his actions during the Mayweather-Ortiz bout (including a fine piece by Gabriel Montoya, who quotes an anonymous referee at length about the chaos of that night), but Kizer, sadly, is oblivious to all that.
