Bradley gets taste of Hollywood -- Desert Sun

By Leighton Ginn, The Desert Sun

HOLLYWOOD — For one day at least, the mild-mannered Timothy Bradley went Hollywood, holding an open media training session at the Fortune Gym off of Sunset.

Now ranked among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Bradley's camp wanted to hold a media session in Los Angeles to maximize his exposure for the July 17 fight against Carlos Abregu at The Show inside the Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa. The fight will be televised on HBO.

Inside the Fortune Gym, Bradley was surrounded by approximately 30 media members asking questions or taking pictures or videos.

“It's sweet. This is sweet. This is the most media I've ever seen,” said Bradley, the Cathedral City resident. “A lot of the media is here in L.A. A lot of the media can't come down to where I live, so we come to them, and they come to me right here. It's been beautiful. Without the media, and I might eat my words later in life because something can happen, but the media is what makes you.”

It threw a bit of a curve ball into Bradley's training schedule, having to make the two-plus hour commute to Los Angeles.

Bradley's trainer, Joel Diaz, said Bradley had a light workout scheduled anyway. Plus, Diaz understands the value of coming out to Los Angeles.

“It's part of the business. It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing,” Diaz said. “There's a lot of boxing fans in the L.A. area that need to know Tim Bradley more, get closer to Tim Bradley and get people from this side to come down to Palm Springs and enjoy a good fight.”

Bradley is the WBO light welterweight champion, who has emerged as the deepest and one of the most talked about divisions. At 26-0, Bradley is considered the No. 1 fighter in the division, and the public is starting to clamor for the top fighters to fight each other.

The most talked about fight is Bradley taking on Devon Alexander, who holds the IBF and the WBC belt that Bradley vacated. Other names being thrown around are WBO champion Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana, two fighters Bradley was going to fight. Both Khan and Maidana backed out of the fights, according to Bradley's camp.

However, Bradley is moving up from the 140-pound division to the 147-pound welterweight division to fight Abregu. An impressive showing by Bradley, and he could be in line for a mega fight with superstars Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao, especially if the two can't come to an agreement to fight each other.
Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, has scoffed at Bradley, saying he doesn't have enough marquee value to help carry a pay-per-view event.

Bradley and his camp contend that Arum and Pacquiao are afraid to fight The Desert Storm and are making excuses.

But there is no denying that if Bradley can increase his fan base in Los Angeles even more, the Pacquiaos and Mayweathers will have no choice but to fight Bradley.

“It's very important for us. No. 1, this is a big fight for him, not just the opponent, but he's moving up (in weight) and he's on HBO. It's certainly very important in terms of what the future holds for him,” said Alex Camponovo, the general manager/matchmaker of Bradley's promoters, Thompson Boxing. “The best marketing he can have for any fight is how he's going to perform on July 17.”

Source: mydesert.com