Alexander team not impatient but not going to wait forever either
Following a halt to negotiations in a January 29 unified title bout between WBC/IBF junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander and WBO titlist Timothy Bradley, Alexander’s team confirms that they aren’t growing impatient over the delay.
Kevin Cunningham, who trains and manages Devon Alexander said: "We're not getting impatient, no. But we're not going to tolerate and sit back and wait on these guys to figure out another excuse, come up with another excuse for not making this fight. You know,
if they want to f**k around and bullsh*t around, one minute it's not enough money, the next thing it's 'My promoter is trying to extend the promotional agreement.' I mean, Bradley has excuses A-to-Z when it comes to Devon Alexander.”
Negotiations came to a stop recently when it was revealed Bradley was involved in a dispute with promoter Gary Shaw, who was finalizing terms with Cunningham and Don King for the fight with “Alexander the Great.”
Shaw allegedly told Bradley he would finalize the bout if Bradley was willing to sign a contract extension with Gary Shaw Productions. Bradley, whose contract ends in coming months, prefers to look into other promotional opportunities before re-signing
with Shaw.
More recently Dan Rafael reported that Shaw has offered Bradley a new two-fight deal as an alternative to a contract extension. Bradley would be free to do as he pleases after the two fights, both of which would be with Alexander. Bradley’s representatives
said he is considering the offer.
Cunningham was clear to point out that his fighter, Alexander, will not suffer through bench time because of a riff between his opponent and promoter. He said: “Devon's career is not going to be held up or stalled. His career does not depend on fighting
Tim Bradley. We want to make the fight; we've agreed to terms; we've made concessions. It's not like we got everything we wanted.”
Cunningham said that he wanted the January 29 date for the bout because it meant Alexander would be keeping busy in the ring. He doesn’t like idea that, should the bout be postponed, his fighter may be inactive for a longer period.
“No, we don't like that idea but we were willing to go along with this plan and now here Bradley comes with this bullsh*t, again,” Cunningham said, his voice raising. “Don't forget this is the same guy who, when Devon and Bradley were both fighting on ‘ShoBox,’
they talked about a possible Devon-Bradley fight, he [Bradley] avoided the fight then. When Devon was his mandatory, what he do? He gave up his WBC title to avoid Devon.”
With that Cunningham gave his final assessment of the situation. “Now, here it is; he’s getting offered over a million dollars to fight Devon and he’s running away from a million-dollar payday! I mean, what is it going to take for you guys [reporters]
to realize this? Tim Bradley is scared to f**cking fight Devon Alexander!”
Cunningham reported that, as his team won’t be waiting forever for Bradley, they have already sketched out some other potential bouts for Alexander in his absence, such as Victor Ortiz.
It is also expected that either Bradley or Alexander will challenge the winner of a locked-in WBA title bout between interim champion Marcos Maidana and champion Amir Khan on December 11. It is possible that should Amir Khan win that bout, he will be declared
the WBA junior welterweight ‘super’ champion, and in that case a bout with Bradley or Alexander would be a career-high pay day.
Khan recently said that he thinks Bradley too is avoiding the meaningful fights in his division, including a bout with Alexander.
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