A defence for a ducker...

Spazdarn

http://www.boxingscene.com/khan-explains-how-he-confronted-bradley-las-vegas--46565

Khan was spoken a lot recently about the reason for his unification fight with Bradley going tits up. It's fairly obvious to see that Bradley was the one that ducked him, especially considering he was offered apparently 50/50 including UK money which Amir and his people have been very stingy with...

Usually I would deride anyone for not manning up and taking the fight but in this case I think there might have been some sense in it.

Bradley was going through legal issues with promoters at the time, so that'd never a good idea to cement a fight when that's **** occurring. You could argue they're both bigger stars now, though Bradley is only marginally based on his fights.

Bradley is with Top Rank now, and that can only help me garner a fan base and the money that goes along with that. At the moment he couldn't book out the community center in his local town. So a fight or two with Top Rank to build up his profile would do him no harm.

While it was blatant ducking, by waiting a year or so later, Bradley will be more marketable, will bring more to the table when negotiating and the risk of taking on Khan will at least have decent money attached to it.

He's always going to end up fighting Khan anyway, whether it be 140, or 147... it might as well be worth the money.

colly10

Bradley actually gave "what will I do if I loose" as a reason.
I don't see the guy becoming much more marketable, he's terrible to watch (and clashed heads are almost guaranteed) and he has recently shown he looks even worse at 147.
He should have taken his chance while it was there, he turned down a guaranteed 1.3m and with Khan looking at both 147 and Mayweather, he probably wont get a deal like that again

Spazdarn

They'll meet at 147 in the next year or two. Floyd and Manny will likely be out of the picture so assuming Bradley doesn't pick up a loss by then it'll be one of the biggest fights at 147.

"If I lose" excuse is at least a refreshingly honest answer, you don't seem from many boxers these days

And he's correct, if a boxer with skill, and a tiny fanbase gets beat by Khan it sets him back and awful lot, now he's got Bob Arum, custom picking his next two or three fights to make him a bigger name (Not that I agree with such a practice) but it should improve his marketability.

Wild_Dogger

Are we overlooking Lamont Peterson ?

I can see an upset happening here .

richierichballs

Yeah Bradley defiantly ducked him,
I think I remember hearing something about Bradley not being happy with his promotional contract with Gary Shaw at the time,
If I remember correctly he said "If I'm going to get my biggest payday I don't want to be giving such a big cut to my promoter as I am."

Now he's with Top Rank and presumably they aren't taking as much, so maybe the fight will happen...