:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/1545510/GYI0062746143.jpg)
According to ESPN.com's Dan Rafael, Amir Khan has authorized Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions to make Timothy Bradley a sweet new offer to get a fight done on July 23.
Rafael reports that Khan wants to offer Bradley a 50-50 split of the pay-per-view revenue in the United Kingdom. That is a very bold move by Khan, and indicates one of two things:
- Khan really, really wants this fight, or
- Khan knows that the fight isn't going to happen, so he can grandstand like this.
I tend to be an open-minded dude and all, but there are a lot of layers to this whole situation. Gary Shaw says they upped the Khan fight offer to Timothy Bradley to a "minimum of $1.4 million against an 80-20 split of their side's take," with Bradley keeping the lion's share for himself.
But strangely, it seems like the least-talked about thing in this whole ordeal is what I'm assuming is the real reason this fight isn't happening on July 23. By all accounts, Timothy Bradley's contract with Gary Shaw expires on June 30. That's a big deal. Why would he risk devaluing himself against the toughest 140-pound test out there for him by accepting a fight on July 23 when his deal is up on June 30 and he's going to probably be looking to listen to offers elsewhere, or at the very least renegotiate a better deal with Shaw? I really, really believe that this has to be the biggest issue for Team Bradley, and not the fact that HBO offered him good money for any fight they approve, or some fear of Amir Khan.
Still, the UK PPV offer from Khan is pretty big. In the previous offer, Bradley would have gotten 0% of the UK PPV, and 50% is, like, way more than that. I'd say this makes the chances of seeing Khan vs Bradley on July 23 better than they were when the fight was considered dead last week, but I still wouldn't hold my breath. If it doesn't happen, it appears the two front-runners to face Khan on July 23 are Robert Guerrero and Zab Judah, with Guerrero seeming to have the lead in that race so far.