Timothy Bradley's name has been in the boxing news lately, even without a fight. Bradley denied Amir Khan's rumor that he'll be fighting Manny Pacquiao this November, but more significantly, he turned down a July 23 date with Khan.
The running idea was that at $1.3 million, Bradley didn't see why he should fight Khan immediately, when he had a guaranteed $1.2 million for any HBO-approved fight. But Leon Margules, the attorney for promoter Gary Shaw, says that Bradley would have made more to fight Khan than just the $1.3 million guarantee:
"We keep seeing this number of $1.3 million being reported and that's not accurate. He would make a lot more than $1.3 million. We offered Bradley 80% of all total net revenues. It would be a lot more than $1.3 million dollars," Margules told BoxingScene.com.
The other notable news about Bradley lately is that his deal with Shaw expires in June. More and more, this seems like the "real" issue. The rumors last year that Bradley would leave Shaw for Golden Boy may not be what's going on exactly, but it does seem likely that Bradley is waiting for that deal to expire, then he'll find a new promoter or renegotiate with Shaw for a new deal, and then move forward. Considering it's already May, it really isn't too surprising that Bradley wouldn't want to risk lowering his value in any way when he needs a new deal soon.
So where does Bradley go? Shaw has honestly done a fine job promoting Bradley, who isn't exactly charismatic or particularly exciting to watch, by getting him on TV constantly no matter the competition. Shaw is not noted for being a great promoter at getting gates (though he'll buy up tickets in Palm Springs to make it look like Bradley sold out), but he does an excellent job exposing his fighters through TV, which these days is probably more beneficial overall.
Shaw and Margules pointing out that the difference, in reality, would not have been merely $100,000 tells me that they're not trying to make Timothy Bradley sound great right now. Shaw has publicly urged fighters to take fights in the past, but this is a bit different. When Alfredo Angulo turned down $1 million and a guaranteed return date to face Sergio Martinez, Shaw groaned quite loudly in public. But that time, we were talking about a fighter getting a really great deal. This time, even with the extra revenue, we're not talking about Bradley getting a payday wildly out of line with his potential earning power otherwise, or at least it doesn't seem that way.
Do you expect Bradley to leave Shaw for Golden Boy or Top Rank? Do you expect he's just trying to strengthen a negotiating position with Shaw?