Shortly after his unanimous decision win over Luis Abregu last July, Timothy Bradley made it a point to call out Devon Alexander as his next opponent. Alexander gladly obliged and in a few short days, all the talk will be over and the two will meet in the Pontiac Silverdome with the WBC and WBO light welterweight belts on the line Jan. 29 (live on HBO at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).
“I'm sick of training already,” Bradley admitted. “I can't wait until next week to get it on. I’m just trying to stay focused, keep my head in the game and trying not to burn myself out.”
Bradley also admits that this will not be an easy fight. Both fighters come in undefeated, but one will leave with a blemish on his record. To prepare for his southpaw opponent, Bradley sparred with six different lefty partners. He says Alexander’s youth (23 years old to Bradley’s 27), speed and conditioning all caught his eye while preparing for the fight.
That said, Alexander gave Bradley bulletin board material recently when he said this was going to be an easy fight. Those comments did not sit well with Bradley.
“That dude is naïve,” Bradley said. “He believes what he wants to believe. He hasn't been in the ring with a beast like me. I'm not No. 1 for nothing. He can believe that all he wants, but when he gets in there, the tough gets going, he's breathing hard, doesn’t know what to do, the trainer’s going to be yelling at him in the corner, it's going to be funny man. It's going to be funny to see him get frustrated, because he's not going to be able to hit me like he thinks he is.”
This fight is significant for several reasons. It is the first big title fight of 2011 and features two Americans, both youthful, both with an opportunity to propel themselves toward stardom. The 140-pound weight class is filled with other big fights, including Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana and the winner would not only save his unbeaten record, but have the inside track to another prime-time fight.
This is not lost on Bradley, who calls this the biggest fight of his career. He also says he is reluctant to make predictions about what will happen in the ring that night.
What he will say is that he is quicker, slicker and applies more pressure than Alexander’s last opponent, Andreas Kotelnik, who lost to the St. Louis native in a unanimous decision.
Then there is the issue of the WBC belt. Bradley was stripped of it when he declined to fight Alexander, the mandatory challenger. Now he has a chance to reclaim it and he did, albeit reluctantly, give a prediction.
“I get an opportunity to get back what's mine and that's the WBC title. I'm not a predictions type of dude, but I expect a great fight and at the end of 12 rounds or maybe sooner, my hand will be raised and I will be victorious.”
