Junior Welterweight

I write this article as a commentary. 

The reason I'm doing this is because of recent articles I've read, mainly on BoxingNews24, about the state of Amir Khan's career, his chin, heart and skills. I also write it because of his upcoming fight with Lamont Peterson on December 10 in Washington.

First off, Khan has been on the receiving end of criticism from Internet trolls making their 'opinions' heard in the form of ridiculous name-calling such as 'A Mere Con' or 'Queen Khan.' Really original. 

These trolls are quick to point out that he lost in 54 seconds to Breidis Prescott and  took a decent beating against Marcos Maidana in the 10th round of their fight-of-the-year bout in December 2010.

However, it is as obvious to me as it was to the fans, judges and commentators that night that he won; it was close, but he was a few points ahead. I had him on 114-111 when the fight ended.

The Paul McCloskey fight was a stinker, to be honest. I don't even want to comment on the McCloskey camp saying they 'deserve' a rematch. It was clear to everyone that he was severely out-classed that night.

Amir Khan-Zab Judah. It was the perfect fight, the best I've seen from Khan, no doubt. As correctly said by Emmanuel Steward he looked like a full-blown welterweight in there, sizing over Judah.

All in all, Khan comes out better every time he fights and he's looking more confident, bigger and more composed.

The Peterson fight. Both Khan and his trainer, Freddie Roach, have stated that Peterson will be the toughest fight so far. However I don't really believe either of them sincerely thinks so.

Peterson was beaten firmly by Timothy Bradley, who rejected a career-high payday to fight Khan, and was also put down a couple of times by Victor Ortiz, though the fight ended in a draw.

In this fight, Khan will use his long left jab to slow down Peterson. I think he will also be going for the body a lot, as it was a weak point against Ortiz. He will also move around the ring and jump in and out with a pair of the fastest hand combinations boxing has today.

And to be honest, Peterson probably won't have much to answer with: He has decent power, inferior to Khan's though, OK speed, but not anywhere near Khan's.

My fight prediction: Peterson will show a lot of heart in the first few rounds, will slow down in the middle rounds and the fight will either be stopped in the late rounds or result in a clear unanimous decision for Khan.

I usually get a lot of criticism for supporting Amir Khan and being a huge admirer of his talents, but mostly it comes from Americans who wish they had such a good fighter in their own stable. It seems every pay-per-view show on HBO features Mexicans these days, and that has angered some fans.

But please, in time you will appreciate that he is champion for a reason, and I see him rise in the P4P ranks as soon as Manny and Floyd retire.

Timothy Bradley knocked out Joel Casamayor in the eighth round of their fight for the WBO Light Welterweight Championship on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez undercard.

Bradley illustrated that he's the division's best boxer with a convincing victory. Casamayor tried to keep it close with a defensive, slow-paced approach that didn't endear him to the fans, but it wasn't enough to stop Bradley, who moved to 28-0.

Only Amir Khan could stake a claim that Bradley doesn't belong atop the division. Khan is the unified WBA Super and IBF Light Welterweight Champion while Bradley holds the WBO Light Welterweight title.

It would be interesting if the two could agree on terms for a fight to settle the score once and for all, but it's still unclear whether both sides would be willing to do that considering the loser would be left out in the cold.

However, it would equate to a very strong undercard bout and may even be able to work its way onto Floyd Mayweather's card in early May. The placement alone could help increase the purse size enough to convince both men to agree.

Either way, Bradley has a pretty good case to be considered the best light welterweight.

The only thing he lacks is legitimate knockout power, with just 12 in 28 wins as opposed to Khan's 18 in 26 wins. That said, it isn't necessary to win by KO if you can wear down your opponent to dominate the late-round scorecards.

Bradley has shown great endurance throughout his career, which started in 2004, and Saturday's fight was on the biggest stage yet. Even that couldn't force him to change his game plan, as he slowly but surely destroyed Casamayor.

He'll continue to be favored in every fight unless he goes up against Khan. And in reality, he should be willing to take on that task because it's hard to imagine him ever finding better form than he's in right now. Erik Morales is always another option.

Whoever he fights next, Bradley will have a good chance as long as he fights within his means and doesn't try to do too much early in the bout.

For the latest news and updates on Pacquiao vs. Marquez, and for all the latest news and insight on all things boxing, be sure to check out Bleacher Report's Boxing Central.

Everyone is anticipating fireworks when two of the greatest fighters in boxing—Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez—step into the ring Saturday to complete what is already a legendary trilogy.

But while Pacquiao (Ring magazine's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter) and Marquez (No. 5 pound-for-pound) will certainly steal the headlines, another top-10 pound-for-pound fighter will also be on the card.

Timothy Bradley, of Palm Desert, Calif., is currently ranked No. 8 by Ring, and has been one of the most fascinating and curious fighters in the sport.

He faces off against former champion Joel Casamayor in the marquee undercard bout of the evening.

Bradley, 28 years old and seeking the 28th win of his undefeated career, burst onto the scene in May, 2008, with an upset victory over WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter in the champion's home country of England, and has won seven straight title fights since then.

Bradley is best known for his superb conditioning and all-around ability rather than any particular physical gifts, but has seen his career stall lately, as a much-anticipated showdown with Devon Alexander in January fell short of its highly-touted expectations, and a summer date with chief rival Amir Khan failed to materialize.

Signs indicate that the Casamayor bout may be a tune-up fight prior to a potential Bradley vs. Pacquiao fight if the Filipino's plans to fight Floyd Mayweather continue to fall through.

Bradley, who fights at light welterweight (140 pounds), is just a few pounds away from Pacquiao, who will be fighting Marquez at a catchweight of 144 pounds.

More importantly, Bradley recently signed with Bob Arum's Top Rank promotions, which has been a de facto requirement to fight Pacquiao recently. All of Pacquiao's recent opponents had at least signed short-term contracts so that Bob Arum could promote both fighters for his bouts.

Bradley vs. Pacquiao could be an interesting bout. At 5'6", Bradley normally faces a height disadvantage, but would actually be the same height as Pacquiao. One of the biggest criticisms of Bradley has been that his size and style tends to create a lot of headbutts, but against Pacquiao, he wouldn't be as likely to catch his opponent near the eyebrows, which is the primary place for cuts.

Assuming Bradley performs as expected and defeats Casamayor, a very lucrative fight could be in his future. Still, the story surrounding this reinforces another theme of Bradley's career: despite his talent and proven track record, he is nobody's first choice to fight Pacquiao.

Everyone who even casually follows the sport knows that a Pacquiao vs. Mayweather bout is what the boxing fans crave, so Bradley getting a chance to fight Pacquiao is clearly an underdog proposition. But perhaps that's where Bradley is most comfortable.

True boxing fans will be watching the Bradley vs. Pacquiao narrative closely this Sunday, when the under-appreciated marquee American fighter steps into the ring to make another defense of the title he has held for the past three years.

As one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley has had trouble drawing a following for his fights, and must impress in his bout with Joel Casamayor on the the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel fight this weekend.

Bradley is an impressive 27-0 with 11 knockouts and has the WBO light welterweight title, but still finds it hard to draw a crowd to his fights in person and on pay-per-view.

On Saturday November 12, Bradley will not have to worry about the crowd showing up, as he is fighting just before Pacquiao, the most popular boxer in the world, takes to the ring.

With all the extra eyes on his fight with Casamayor, Bradley must be aggressive and go for a KO win, as the fans who are tuning to watch Pacquiao fight will remember his showing in his upcoming fight and will tune in to watch his next bout if he can leave a favorable impression in their minds.

Bradley opened his career up being an aggressive fighter that went for a knockout in every fight.

He recorded a KO in five of his first seven fights, and hasn't had a KO win since a 2007 TKO win over Nasser Athumani.

He has since become more of a defensive fighter, like fellow pound-for-pound great Floyd Mayweather Jr., making some of his fights boring to the casual boxing fan.

Bradley recently signed with Top Rank boxing promotions, and with a big win, Top Rank could have Bradley on his way to mega fights in the future—including one against Amir Khan, which Bradley has been wanting for some time now.

Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 Knockouts) has dropped out of his scheduled battle with Erik Morales (51-7, 35 Knockouts) for the vacant WBA junior welterweight world championship on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather vs Victor Ortiz September 17 on HBO PPV.

The fight would've been the most lucrative and high profile of Matthysse's career. According to Boxing Scene, Matthysse has come down with an undisclosed illness.

Commentating on the unfortunate turn of events, Matthysse had this to say:

I feel very hurt. This was the fight of my life. But I just couldn't get up to fight. I am not able to. I apologize to the [WBC] for this unexpected and painful situation.

Another report from Boxing Scene says that Anthony Crolla (20-2, 8 Knockouts) may become Matthysse's replacement if another replacement cannot be sanctioned by the WBC in time to compete against Morales.

My Two Cents

This is very disappointing news, or at least it could be. Stay with me. There's plenty of great fighters that can replace Morales.

One opponent in particular is the hard-hitter Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 Knockouts) who doesn't even have an official opponent yet for his scrambled together September 23 fight in his home country of Argentina.

Golden Boy is Morales and Maidana's promoter. If they want Morales to have an exciting opponent, they'll pull Maidana out of whatever he's currently doing to get him in the ring with Morales.

Maidana and Morales had an exciting close fight this past April. Maidana eked out a majority decision with some believing the Argentinean to have lost to the Mexican legend.

A rematch would not only give Maidana the chance to clarify that he is the better fighter, it would also give IBF and WBA junior welterweight world champion Amir Khan (26-0, 17 Knockouts) another belt to go after.

Khan has said that he's after belts in the junior welterweight division in an attempt to become the unified champion.

WBO champion Timothy Bradley (28-0, 11 Knockouts) had his chance but is currently in litigation with his current promoters.

Maidana and Khan have already faced each other once in what many called the fight of the year for 2010. 

Is there a greater way to cap off Khan's reign at junior welterweight than to participate in a rematch of the best fight of his career so far? I think not.

Amir Khan is the darling star of the junior welterweight division right now. 

Currently rated as the number one fighter in the division right now, Khan is still in the looks for an opponent for what could be his last fight in the division before moving North to the welterweight division.

Khan initially had his plans all laid out from his December bout to a potential 2012 bout with Floyd Mayweather. He was planning on taking on the veteran Erik Morales in November and then taking on Kell Brook in the spring before trying to take on Floyd.

Once Morales heard about Khan's plans though for a potential bout between the two, he quickly made it clear that he had no intention of taking on Khan in December. Morales stated that he just started boxing again after a long layoff and that taking on a fighter of Khan's caliber so soon was a deathtrap.

I don't blame him, if he remembers the Maidana fight he got hurt pretty badly. He was gassed in the later rounds and didn't throw enough punches. I'm not knocking his performance; I think he performed a lot better than expected. The point I'm trying to make is, he's not ready yet for Khan and facing him so soon would be setting him up for failure.

With Morales out of the way, who does that leave?

One possible opponent is Morales's current opponent, Lucas Mattyhsse. The reason for this is Morales and Mattyhsse are fighting for Tim Bradley's recently stripped WBC title. If Mattyhsse is able to beat Morales and become a champion, I don't see why Khan wouldn't want to fight him and unify. 

Another opponent is Timothy Bradley. Bradley has always been in everybody's mind as the best possible opponent to face in his division. Unfortunately though, Bradley is caught up in legal troubles with his promoter right now. I had heard that this mess was close to being over, but even if his legal troubles were almost over, I think Bradley would need a tune-up fight after being on a layoff for a couple of months.

Former fight of the year partner and WBA "regular" champ Marcos Maidana will most likely be free for December 10 and has been itching for a rematch with Khan since his defeat. I'd like to see them fight again and see if Khan can survive the storm that is Maidana again as he was rocking Khan hard in the later rounds and almost knocked him out.

The next possibility is the winner of an upcoming fight against a recently defeated Khan foe and the only man to have defeated Khan. Prescott will be facing off against McCloskey September 10th for a possibility to face Khan again. Even though Prescott was the man who won that faithful night, he's the man who has been chasing down Khan for a rematch. He has tried using the David Haye method where he continually insulted Khan and his family to anger Khan into making the fight.

McCloskey on the other hand just wants a rematch with Khan because he truly believes he has a chance to defeat Khan despite all three judge's card shutting him out in their fight. I'm not so keen on a rematch between the two because I honestly didn't think he deserved a shot with Khan in the first place. I think it was a gift that he got the opportunity and Khan was being nice.

My final prediction for an opponent for Khan's next fight is Lamont Peterson. Some of you may remember him from his draw with Victor Ortiz (where he was downed twice and lost by MD) or by his only defeat to Tim Bradley. Peterson is a highly underrated boxer that I think deserves another title shot.  

Evidently, the IBF and the mandatory challenger to Khan rate Peterson as the number one contender. I had also heard rumors recently that if Morales won't make the fight, then Golden Boy will turn to Peterson.

He's been looking good as of lately with that comeback against Ortiz and a recent 12th round knockout of Victor Cayo. I think he earned the right to challenge Khan and fight for a title.

Whomever Khan picks for his fight later this year, it will most likely be his last one at junior welterweight.

After being absent from boxing for over a year, Alfredo Angulo (20-1 17KO) has returned to the sport.

Angulo's last fight was back in 2010 against Joachim Alcine (32-2-1 19KO). It was for the vacant WBC Continental Americas light middleweight title and also an eliminator for the WBC light middleweight title.

The reason for Angulo's long hiatus from the sport was due to promotional issues, as well as his inability to fight in the United States due to immigration issues. Things started to fall apart with his promoter, Gary Shaw, when Shaw offered him a deal worth $750,000 to fight Sergio Martinez.

Angulo's relationship fell apart and he was then deported because it turns out that he had an expired Visa.

Things are starting to look better for Angulo's career as Golden Boy promotions picked him up and he is now poised to return to the top of the division.

Angulo was fed a quick tune-up last night in the form of Joseph Gomez (17-5-1 8KO) who had lost three of his last four. Angulo made quick work of him, knocking him out in less than a minute in the first round. You can view the fight here.

He came out to show that there was no rust after a year layoff and sent his opponent to the ground with a right hook behind the ear. Gomez was unable to get up prompting the ref to stop the fight.

Viewers have criticized Gomez for his performance in the fight and have perpetuated rumors that he is related to Likar Ramos (the man who many people think faked his KO against Marquez).

As soon as Angulo returned, undefeated light middleweight Vanes Martirosyan (30-0 19KO) was pretty much called out by Nacho Bernstein, Angulo's trainer. 

I don't know about you guys, but I'd be pretty excited to see a matchup between the two fighters. 

The fight between the two is now possible, as Top Rank and Golden Boy are both willing to make fights with each other. Also, if this fight were to ever happen, the winner of this fight would make an excellent future opponent for Canelo.

Lately, his choice of opponent hasn't been all too fabulous and a fight and victory over either Vanes or Angulo will surely silence many of his critics.