Was Khan ever considered number one?

Yeah, except for the fact that it didn't.

If he had taken on Khan like he was supposed, he immediately would have been a free agent. There would have been nothing stopping him from signing to Top Rank, fighting Casamayor in November, and being in the exact same position he's in today. This bull**** about him being forced into a longer contract with Shaw if he was to fight Khan, is, well, bull**** :deal. The Khan fight would have been his last and only one.

So yeah, going back on your word, tangling up in a promotional dispute, sitting on your butt for 8 months doing nothing (in a time where you could have taken on and beaten Khan whilst earning almost 2 mill), only to then have a meaningless 5 rounds (or however many it was) against a ridiculously shot Casamayor...... is "not so clever". Especially if that's all you're going with into the biggest fight of your life in June.

 

I'll be nice and say some folks are getting a little confused with the deal he had to fight Alexander deal

 

Yes, it appears so.

(You're not talking about me, are you? :blood)

 

Well technically I am talking to you but not directing at you.:yep

 

Lol cool:good

 

I don't see how you can assume he'd have been in the same position by accepting the Khan fight. He didn't just decline the Khan fight in the hope Top Rank would sign him - he did so with the knowledge that they would.

Had he fought and defeated Khan with no promotional ties to Golden Boy or Shaw/Thompson boxing would he have been in a better negotiating position with Top Rank? Yes. Who's to say Arum wouldn't have turned his attentions elsewhere though?

I'll hold my hands up there. For some reason I was under the impression that he'd had to have signed on for at least one more fight under Shaw/Thompson, but a quick google search shows otherwise.

With that being said - I don't see how Bradley was under any pressure to prove himsef against Khan. He'd been consistently fighting the best at 140lbs for a lot longer than Khan had, and he'd already hinted that he'd wanted to move up in weight. I can see why Khan wanted the fight - Bradley was the top guy in the division - but Bradley had already beaten the man most considered the second best at the time. He was looking to move onto more lucrative long-term avenues.

I think had Floyd Mayweather, Jr actually been a Golden Boy Promotions fighter rather than him more or less hiring them to promote his events then GBP would have been able to use a potential fight with Floyd had Bradley beaten Khan as a carrot-on-a-stick the same way Arum used a Pacquiao fight.

 

The generally American favouring Ring magazine put him above Bradley for a few months, I think after the Judah win, which was coupled by a lack of activity from Bradley. I don't see what Bradley did to earn a concrete position at number one, beating Alexander was good (on paper, if you saw the fight not so much) but not the type of things that makes him the unquestioned man in my opinion.

 

Khan will knock Peterson out!!!

 

That's not quite the whole story. It was all down to hbo's guarantee on Tim's next fight. He wanted to maximise his earnings by taking a normal defence, then the khan fight.

That was the guts of the dispute and the "duck".

 

You forgetting just a month before Bradley-Alexander Khan beat Maidana.

And Ring ranking around Alexander was found out due to Alexander poor showing a vs Kotelnik a fight many fought Kotelnik won vs Alexander a guy Khan again soundly beaten before.

Throws the question how good was Alexander anyway, and Bradley beating him was a great win? It was also a boring fight with lots of head butts, then asking a question again who has Bradley beaten then? His best wins were over a shot Witter and a then lesser Peterson.

 

It was not "all down to HBO's guarantee on Tim's next fight". A lot of people forget that HBO's promise of 1 million (or however much it was) to both Alexander and Bradley, wasn't to be given for any opponent. They had a specific list of top LWWs (preferably the Khan-Maidana winner, amongst a few others) they had to pick to guarantee that money, which was one of the reaons why Alexander was thrown in with a solid guy like Matthysse straight away. HBO aren't that stupid to promise silly amounts of money for any old shitty opponent the fighter cherry-picks.

So, Bradley was not looking to take on Khan straight after the normal defence. It doesn't take a genius to know that, with the GBP-TR beef, signing to Arum immediately destroys any chances of fighting Khan. Bradley was fully aware of this at the time.

 

Any American bias they hold is certainly superseded by the fact the magazine is owned by Khan's promoters.

Vazquez
Witter
Cherry
Holt
Campbell
Peterson
Alexander

That run's pretty impressive if you ask me. Especially considering what Vazquez and Peterson have gone on to do.

 

this is absolute fabrication, amir has never been rated number 1 in the division plus judah is way past his prime so i wouldn't say that particular win was a great boost to khans popularity, he ducked a rematch with maidana and mcCloskey, so imo he don't deserve a title shot right now.

 

He headbutted every single one of those guys. Quite a streak.:wall

 

I'm tired of this story being completely spun. It's very simple:

Bradley was offered a $1m per fight, two-fight deal. First Alexander, then another top ten opponent approved by HBO. He accepted those terms knowing it would take him to the end of his contract extension with Shaw and allow him to make a third $1m payday against Khan, but with a new promoter.

But Shaw tried to force him to accept the Khan fight, knowing he would get a bigger sum from that instead of a mandatory, etc, which is not acting in his fighter's best interests.

THIS is the meat of the Shaw/Bradley dispute and why Cameron Dunkin and his legal team felt they had a lawful case to terminate the promotional agreement. And since Top Rank have been happy to take Timmy on, you can see how the case will likely go.

I don't see how anyone can really blame Bradley for maximising his earnings. He had the option to get three $1m paydays instead of two, plus he knew Top Rank were interested in him as an opponent for Pacquaio. It wasn't like he refused to fight Khan outright, he was just saying it didn't make sense to him right then.