It was Tuesday, about 6:45 p.m. on the West Coast. On the telephone line was Timothy Bradley, the new World Boxing Council super lightweight champion from the beautiful desert town of Palm Springs, Calif.
Ten days earlier, on May 10 in Nottingham, England, Bradley upset Junior Witter via split decision to win the belt. He was in Mexico City on Tuesday to have it presented him by WBC president Jose Sulaiman. When we hooked up with Bradley, he was at the airport ready to board a plane back to California.
Today in downtown Los Angeles, a celebratory luncheon will be held for Bradley. Over the next several days he will be honored by his hometown of Palm Springs as well as neighboring Riverside. Bradley is on Cloud 9 and it doesn’t sound like he plans on coming down any time soon.
“Oh, man, I’m doing all right,” said Bradley, 24. “I got the belt now.”
And more on his plate than ever.
“I’ve just been so busy, man,” he said. “My schedule is like just filled up. It’s crazy. It’s unbelievable. I’ve just been having a lot of interviews and just been on the phone a lot. I had to come out here to Mexico to receive my belt from Jose Sulaiman. He put a hell of a press conference on for me and it was unbelievable.”
Just not as unbelievable as his return to Palm Springs after defeating Witter.
“When I got home, everybody was just giving me a lot of love and support and just saying, ‘Congratulations,’ ” Bradley said. “It’s the best feeling, man, the best feeling in my life so far. It’s just indescribable. It’s just like everything I thought it would be.”
Oh, yes, this is one happy young man. Not only did he win his first world championship before the age of 25, he took the belt from a man fighting in his native country. Moreover, Bradley won the belt because he was able to come up with a dramatic knockdown in the sixth round. It was the only knockdown of the fight.
Had Bradley not decked Witter with an overhand right, the best Bradley could have done was a draw. In that case, Witter would have kept his belt.
“Oh, yeah, I definitely thought about that,” Bradley said. “I turned the tide around in the sixth round with that knockdown. And he really wasn’t able to recover after that. He seemed a little out of it, a little bit winded, a little bit frustrated. It was the perfect punch at the right time.”
It was that.
Interestingly, it was one of the few real clean punches landed in the fight. Styles played a role, that’s for sure. But from Bradley’s standpoint, he had a specific defensive scheme and it worked to near-perfection. He said that he wanted to keep his head and his feet moving so that Witter would rarely have a “clear shot” at him.
“I was able to avoid a lot of his big punches,” said Bradley, who said that he had watched extensive film of Witter. “During the fight every time he threw a big shot, I was underneath it.”
Still, at the end of 12 rounds the fight was obviously close. Bradley certainly did not dominate Witter, but he did appear to do enough to win. Then again, they were in Witter’s backyard and that is always scary to a fighter and his camp.
With Bradley on Tuesday was Alex Camponovo, matchmaker for Thompson Boxing Promotions in Orange, Calif. Thompson Boxing co-promotes Bradley along with Gary Shaw Productions. Camponovo recalled the moments leading up to Bradley being announced the winner.
“We went up in the ring and I was standing over there and the first thing I told all the guys, ‘Whether the decision comes our way or not, we did not lose,’ ” Camponovo said. “I thought it was a close fight and we had a chance but you never know what’s going to happen when you’re in that situation, when you go down to the wire and you have a world champion in front of you fighting in his hometown. That makes it hard.”
So, what’s next? The other three champions are Ricardo Torres, Paul Malignaggi and Andreas Kotelnik. Bradley, 22-0 with 11 knockouts, said he is willing to take on all comers.
“I pretty much want to fight the best out there,” Bradley said. “I would love to fight Paul Malignaggi, (former champion) Ricky Hatton, all the best.”
Camponovo said that he is hopeful of first getting Bradley a voluntary defense with a top 15 fighter. He also said it will be interesting to see how a few upcoming fights unfold – such as Hatton-Juan Lazcano and Malignaggi-Lovemore N’dou on Saturday in England, as well as Torres-Kendall Holt on July 5 in Las Vegas.
“Our purpose now is to make Timothy Bradley not just a world champion, but a household name,” Camponovo said.
Bradley can’t wait for his first defense. He said only then will his accomplishment truly hit home.
“It really hasn’t hit me yet,” Bradley said, “but probably once I hear my name announced differently in the ring, it will probably hit me then that I am a world champion.”