Timothy Bradley’s Promoter Proposes 140 Pound Tournament to HBO
Saturday night’s bout between Andre Ward and Allan Green for Ward’s WBA super middleweight title also caps off the second of three rounds in the Group Stage of the Super Six World Boxing Classic put together by American cable network Showtime, and so far it’s been hard to call it anything but an unqualified success. The tournament has put together six of the top fighters in the super middleweight division and created interest and some of the most intriguing fights of the new decade. People are talking about the super middleweight division - a trend that should increase as the tournament heads toward the finals in 2011 and a unified champion.
The interest in the super middleweight tournament has not been lost on boxing promoters, including Gary Shaw. He’s taken a keen interest in the tournament, particularly as it pertains to his fighter, current WBO junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. Shaw told reporters this week that he recently met with HBO officials and proposed to them that a smaller, similar tournament be hold within the 140-pound class. This tournament would essentially be a pair of matches including Bradley, WBC and IBF champion, “full” WBA titlist Amir Khan and interim WBA title holder Marcos Maidana. Two fighters would square off against each other in initial bouts, with the winners taking on each other to unify the junior welterweight championship.
Shaw had a novel idea for how to select the initial pairings for the first round of fights. Shaw wanted to hold a press conference and have two of the fighters draw names from a bowl - the fighter they drew would be the fighter they face in the first round. It certainly would add a level of mystery and excitement to the tournament and would be a great way to build initial publicity for it. However, Shaw said that his initial attempts at holding the tournament have been rebuffed - and he’s pointing the finger of blame directly at Khan.
According to Shaw, Bradley was willing to take part in a tournament and face whichever fighter came in his path. He also said that Alexander - currently promoted by Don King - was willing to take part in the series of fights as well. However, Shaw said that Khan and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions were not interested in taking part in the tournament. Shaw said that Khan “doesn’t want to fight anybody” and was scared to take part in the tournament.
Shaw also had some choice words for Maidana, who recently made headlines when he revealed that his excuse of having a bad back for pulling out of a fight this summer with Bradley was a lie; he really pulled out of the fight because of a dispute with his current manager. Shaw said that he was “very angry” that Maidana forced Bradley to wait for him and then abandoned the fight because of a bogus injury. He went on to say that he felt that Maidana should be “punished” for lying about the reason for dropping the fight, although he stopped short of suggesting exactly what the punishment should be.
The idea of the tournament at 140 pounds is something that has been talked about for some time. On the surface, it makes a lot of sense - there are four clear top fighters in the junior welterweight division, and the tournament could help add prestige to the fights beyond what would be gained by having individual bouts. But - as seen - it would also require four different groups of promoters with their own agendas to work together. The odds of this happening any time in boxing are always slim.
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