After the earlier report that Timothy Bradley would most likely be facing Andre Berto on December 15 at Miami's Marlins Park on HBO, Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer has thrown an interesting wrench into the works, saying that he now represents Berto, which apparently is a surprise to Bradley's promoter, Bob Arum and Top Rank.
From Lance Pugmire:
Schaefer says he represents Andre Berto and hasn't talked to Arum about him. Arum: "I thought DiBella" has Berto.
I think we all thought that Lou DiBella still had Berto, since DiBella has been Berto's promoter forever, but it's important to remember that Berto is an Al Haymon fighter, and it's been reported before that none of Haymon's fighters are actually signed with a promoter, they're just promoted by certain promoters. With Haymon and Golden Boy working together near-exclusively these days (there are exceptions), that could be what has happened here.
Schaefer also says that Top Rank is spinning the negotiations for a fight between Bradley and Robert Guerrero, another Golden Boy fighter. Schaefer says it's not about money figures, but that Arum wants Bradley to fight junior welterweight Ruslan Provodnikov, whose career thus far has been featured mostly on ESPN Friday Night Fights, and isn't a guy considered a legitimate top contender, particularly at welterweight.
We'll keep you updated on this situation, which is developing in a fairly odd manner, with surprises all over the place. At this point, I really can't say with any certainty what Bradley is doing, what Berto is doing or who promotes him, or really what in the hell is going on with any of this. But if we wind up with Bradley-Provodnikov out of this, what an anti-climax that would be.