The plethora of boxing that’s going on these days is bittersweet in some regards. The exposure the sport is receiving is unprecedented, with the emergence of the Premiere Boxing Champions series and shows on truTV, Spike, ESPN, NBC, CBS, HBO and Showtime.
About the only drawback is that with the frequency of fights, it’s easy for some boxers to get overlooked. Timothy Bradley is trying to prevent himself from being a forgotten contender Saturday night when the former welterweight champion faces Jessie Vargas in the main event of an HBO broadcast from the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.
“I want to be strong and get a decisive win over Vargas,” Bradley said this week. “Like knock him out and put him to sleep.”
Bradley (33-1-1, 12 KOs) has talked tough this week as if crying for attention that other fighters have enjoyed the first half of 2015. Bradley last fought against Diego Gabriel Chaves in December, earning a unanimous decision. Since then boxing has enjoyed a renaissance with fights on prime-time television as well as the premium networks.
Floyd Mayweather’s bout with Manny Pacquiao was the focus of early spring, while the summer has featured victories by Vitali Klitschko, Amir Kahn and Miguel Cotto. The PBS series has benefited fighters like Keith Thurman, Daniel Jacobs and Shawn Porter.
Bradley, meanwhile, has been out of the mix, and now needs to make some noise inside the ring to remind people why he was once considered one of the best welterweights on the planet.
“Vargas knows in his heart I am going to bring it,” Bradley said. “In the ring, I will tell Vargas, ‘This is my time, not yours.’ ”
The Chaves fight in December was Bradley’s first fight since losing a unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao in April 2014. The bout was a rematch of their 2012 fight, in which Bradley was awarded a controversial decision. In many ways, Bradley has been trying to regain some of the respect he lost through no fault of his own because of the decision.
For now, he’ll try to improve on his reputation as a rugged fighter, who can box, punch and dig deep when necessary. He didn’t see Vargas (26-0, 9 KOs), a Las Vegas resident, as being much of a challenge.
“I have more big fight experience than Vargas, more speed, more power and I am the better athlete,” Bradley said.
Vargas has switched trainers for this fight, dumping former world champion turned HBO broadcaster Roy Jones Jr. for former champion Erik Morales.
“I am very religious so I began to pray for the right person to train me,” Vargas said. “Instantly, the name of Erik Morales came to me. I was able to track him down and he came right to our training camp in Las Vegas. I watched practically of all Erik’s big fights — the wars with Marco Antonio Barrera, the fights against Manny Pacquiao. Erik always fought hard and with all his heart. That’s who I want in my corner, someone who will give me everything they have to beat Bradley.”
Bradley made a name for himself with boxing battles against Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Ruslan Provodnikov and Devon Alexander. It’s time to say hello again.
