Did Timothy Bradley blatantly duck Devon Alexander?

I remember reading that Bradley vacated his title so that he didn't have to defend against Alexander, Bradley's reason being that he didn't think Alexander had done enough to merit a title shot, so he was going to fight Nate Campbell instead.

I kind of took this at face value at the time, even though I did think it was strange that a young champion like Bradley who hasn't really fought anyone or achieved anything to think he was already in the position to refuse mandatories and decide if guys were worthy enough to fight him.

However, after seeing Devon Alexander in action vs Juan Urango, I'm starting to suspect a duck. Alexander would have been a far, far tougher fight than that ancient loser Nate Campbell. Alexander looks the real deal. Did Bradley duck him and come up with some bull**** story to justify it? Or am I way off here?

 

I'm not saying he did for sure, I'm putting the idea out there, seeing what people think. Bradley rejected a title challenge from Alexander because Alexander didn't merit it. Had Bradley done so much more than Alexander before he was given a title shot at Witter? How did Bradley deserve a shot at the time he got one, but Alexander didn't when the authorities said it was his turn?

 

Unfortunately, you are not way off here. Bradley let a lot of folks down by acting like a prima donna. He should have fought his mandatory, Alexander, who was definitely a worthy challenger, whether he had proved himself or not. Lest we forget, Bradly had not proved himself when he got the mandatory title shot either - but he proved himself in the ring on the night nonetheless.

 

Yes.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Diaconu turned out not to be that much of a threat but there was no way of knowing that at the time, when Dawson ducked him.

 

This is what ducking means - avoiding your mandatory challenger because he is high risk low reward, once you have the belt, which in most cases you won because the Champ decided to fight you, a high risk low reward mandatory challenger. Would Bradley have been happy if Witter had ducked him? No...

Everyone deserves a shot at the big time and because the world is unfair, most fighters only get to become somebody because they become mandatory challengers and the champ is forced to fight them. If everyone did what Bradley and Dawson did, the only fighters who would get a chance at the big time are those backed by bigtime promoters - the few, lucky ones.