By Norm Frauenheim
Timothy Bradley doesn’t stay angry for too long. Maybe that’s because he’s a nice guy. Or maybe he just doesn’t have time for it. But he doesn’t let it metastasize into a career-killing grudge. That’s for a long line of angry young men in a business full of more grudges than catch-weight clauses.
So it wasn’t exactly a surprise Thursday when Bradley let his rant Tuesday at Jesse Vargas and trainer Erik Morales pass like a summer storm. The good guy in Bradley is impossible to suppress and it was there at a news conference for his Saturday bout with Vargas at the Stub Hub Center in Carson, Calif.
“I have nothing against this team,’’ Bradley (29-1-1, 11 KOs) said as he looked at Vargas and Morales a couple days before HBO Boxing reaches a milestone with its 1000th telecast. “What happened two days ago on that rant – I was just getting out of my car.
“I’m hungry. I’m tired. I gotta take a piss, and I hear someone is saying some negative things about my name. When I went on that rant, I was angry at the time.
“But there’s no disrespect. There’s no bad blood. I respect everybody on the dais – Jessie Vargas and Erik Morales, the great Hall of Fame fighter, Erik Morales.’’
Those are the kind of comments that have come to define Bradley, a promising ringside analyst. He’s a people person with common problems, including a bad day. He’s different only because he fights for a living.
Yet, he’s still approachable in a way that allows they pubic to identify with him. You almost feel as if you could knock on his door to ask if you could borrow his lawn mower. Try that with Floyd Mayweather Jr, who probably doesn’t have a mower, at least not one made by Ferrari.
Bradley went into his rant when he arrived at the fight’s hotel. It quickly exploded on the net, mostly because it was so out of character. It was also hard to figure. What precipitated it?
After promising to whip Vargas’ bleeping posterior, he threatened to do the same to Morales, the former featherweight great and Vargas new trainer. Morales, a former champion at four different weights, replaced Roy Jones Jr.
“I’ll come back and beat his behind if he comes out of retirement,’’ said Bradley, a favorite in his first bout since sustaining a debatable draw in December against Diego Chaves. “Whatever weight. We could fight at a catch-weight. It don’t matter. You want to fight at 200? It doesn’t matter. I’m going to whip your ass next. If you want to talk, you can say whatever you want to say.’’
Huh?
It was never clear what, if anything, Morales said. There was some suspicion that maybe it was just a ploy to sell a fight between two good guys. And, sure enough, Top Rank don’t waste any time sending out video of the rant, far and wide. The other suspicion was that Bradley was grasping for motivation against Vargas (26-0, (KOs), who is unbeaten yet a newcomer to the welterweight division’s elite.
Nope, nope and nope.
Turns out, Bradley only had to go to the men’s room.
