To many, Tim Bradley is still the third best welterweight in the world behind Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Bradley is coming off a decision victory over Jessie Vargas where Bradley won a clear decision, but it wasn’t without controversy. Vargas landed a big right hand in the last round which had Bradley hurt. Referee Pat Russell heard the 10-second bell and thought it was the final bell, hence saying the fight was over. Vargas had around 8-10 seconds to knock Bradley out but wasn’t landing anything of note following the big right hand.
Joel Diaz, Bradley’s trainer, says there shouldn’t be a rematch because Vargas was losing the entire fight.
“I’m not going to take anything from Jessie Vargas,” Diaz told On The Ropes Boxing.
“Jessie Vargas really put in his whole body into that punch, and we could all see it. I see that punch in slow motion, and Jessie really, really wanted to hurt Tim. But you can’t win a fight; I mean you’re losing eleven and a half rounds and then one punch?”
Diaz says if Bradley recovered from a Provodnikov rally in the 12th round, he definitely would have recovered from the last 8-10 seconds that were left.
“It could change the whole thing, but Tim could have survived the few seconds that were on the clock. He survived against Ruslan Provodnikov, a heavy hitter. I don’t think just one punch made a difference in the fight. It gave people something to talk about, but it doesn’t deserve a rematch.”
So what’s next for Bradley? A possible fight with Sadam Ali is on the horizon for his new WBO title, but Diaz isn’t ruling out a third fight with Pacquiao.
“Anything can be possible. Anything can be possible, and don’t get me wrong because Tim at one point in his career after he lost to Pacquiao the second fight he said, “If I get that WBO title, Manny is going to come back to me again.” He doesn’t doubt it, and I don’t doubt it. They went at it twice and you know they had controversy in the first one, and he beat him the second time. Tim put up a hell of a fight in the second fight, and Bradley-Pacquiao II was a more exciting fight than Mayweather-Pacquiao. I don’t see why not go for a third one. I mean, Pacquiao fought Marquez four times.”
