by James Slater – Less than a month ago, 25-year-old Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley scored his biggest win to date, when he defended his WBC light-welterweight title and won the WBO version in his up-from-the-floor points win over Kendal Holt. Now, however, the good work has been undone, because The World Boxing Council has reportedly stripped Bradley of its title..
According to FightNews.com, the Jose Sulaiman-led organisation stripped Bradley because he has reneged on his previous agreement to fight WBC number-one 140-pound contender Devon Alexander in his next fight after facing Holt. Now, former champ Junior Witter, the man Bradley has already beaten, will box Alexander to decide the vacant strap. Bradley and his team said Showtime expressed no interest in buying a fight between he and Alexander, and that that has made the mandatory fight a hard one to make.
What we will have then, is a man Palm Springs’ Bradley, 24-0(11), has already proven he is superior to, fighting southpaw Alexander for the world title. The WBC has explained its actions, but with Showtime showing no interest in a Bradley-Alexander fight, will the network want to pick up Witter Vs. Alexander? And will the fans want to see such a match-up? Some fans will say Bradley deserved to have been stripped for not fighting Alexander, but surely no-one would say the proud champion – a man who has proven he wants to fight the best – is ducking the 22-year-old with the 18-0(11) record? Bradley simply craves the big fights is all.
In any case, a Witter-Alexander fight will go to purse bids on May 22nd if no deal has been reached by the two camps before then. A reasonably interesting and potentially exciting fight, the 35-year-old switch hitter against the much younger southpaw is no fight to get the fans salivating.
Great Britain’s Witter, 37-2-2(22), has won one fight since losing to Bradley last May, impressively stopping Argentina’s Victor Hugo Castro in three rounds back in November. While Missouri’s Alexander last fought in April of this year, when he KO’d Jesus Rodriguez in the 9th round. A pro since May of 2004, Alexander will likely be the betting favourite to defeat Witter, due in large part to the age advantage he has.
There is no news yet on who Bradley, who still holds the WBO 140 pound title, will fight next. Once again, though, we are back to square one when it comes to our sport having a unified light-welterweight division.