Timothy Bradley, Jr is fresh off a unanimous decision win over Jessie Vargas held last June 27, 2015 at the StubHub Center though his victory is still hounded by yet another controversy.
To recall, this was when referee Pat Russell stepped in to stop the action which Vargas though he had won. As it turned out, Russell later claimed that he mistook the tap as the final bell allowing Bradley to escape Vargas as he was going in for the kill.
Despite that premature ending, the WBO has decided not to hold a rematch, depriving Vargas any chance of redeeming himself at Bradley Jr.
Vargas did file a formal appeal to the California State Athletic Commission, wanting his loss to be changed to a no-contest due to the unusual incident that took place in the last seven seconds of the fight. For now, there is no word if any course of action would be made on the appeal.
Moving forward, there is one boxer who would love to get another crack at Bradley too – Ruslan Provodnikov.
At that time, Bradley was feeling the heat after being awarded a controversial win over Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao on June 9, 2012. In a fight that seemed to surprise even Bradley, the fact remained that he was hounded by that controversy, maybe even to this day.
To somehow cover up the widely celebrated issue, Bradley faced off against Russian Ruslan Provodnikov on March 16, 2013.
Bradley and his camp felt that Provodnikov could somehow ease the stigma of that controversy but to their surprise, Provodnikov proved he was someone that should not be taken lightly.
With Bradley being unusually aggressive, the plan seemed to have backfired with Provodnikov connecting on hard shots which visibly affected the WBO Welterweight Champion at that time.
After starting off aggressively, Bradley would revert to his conservative style until Bradley got tagged again.
With seconds left in the final round, Bradley took a knee with seconds left and held on to win the match on points.
For Provodnikov, that could be a similar occurrence when one thinks about that recent tiff Bradley had with Vargas.
Though memories of that fight is over two years ago, it remains that a possible rematch for Provodnikov is at the top of his list.
Provodnikov’s last fight was in April 18, 2015 where he lost to Lucas Matthysse via majority decision. The Russian had all the chances to finish off Matthysse but a deep cut above his right eye hindered him from carrying out his usual hits.
Regardless, Provodnikov is looking to get back in the ring and it seems that he wants to get back at the fighters who won over him.
Though Matthysse is sure to be one of them, the Russian is reportedly keen on Mauricio Herrera, someone he lost to in 2009 via unanimous decision and of course Bradley.
If he had his way, however, Provodnikov will have Bradley as his priority. Will Bradley oblige?
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