Julio Garcia
On October 13th, Edmonton’s own “Vicious” Vanessa Bradford will have the biggest fight of her boxing career when she takes on Top Rank’s Mikaela Mayer on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs Jose Benavidez Jr. The bout will be for the NABF junior lightweight title.
This upcoming bout is a big step up for Bradford who has only fought a total of 6 times within the span of her 10-year career as a professional. Why has she only fought only 6 times in 10 years you may ask? Injuries have kept her out of the ring for some time and the lack of opportunities seems to have been the main culprit for her inactivity. While not being able to secure fights, Bradford kept herself busy by constantly training in the gym in case an opportunity would ever arise.
2017 was somewhat of a breakout year for the Canadian fighter as she travels to the US to fight Shianne Gist in Pennsylvania. The bout ended up being a draw but it was more than enough to grab attention from other fighters and promoters. There were a couple opportunities in between that fight and now that popped up but nothing ever became of those opportunities.
Earlier this year Bradford’s stablemate Sheena Kaine fought and lost a 12 round unanimous decision against Mayer so with knowledge of how Mayer fights, Bradford should be better equipped in her upcoming bout and she it’s definitely more than ready for her time to shine.
Julio Garcia
