Fight of the Year Could Happen on December 12
By
Brent Matteo Alderson

It’s late in the calendar year, but don’t make your pick for fight of the year just yet because it’s very possible that one of two fights on December 12 could win the honor.
First off in Indio, California on Showtime, local product Timothy Bradley 24-0 defends his WBO 140 pound title against former amateur star and WBO interim champion Lamont Peterson 27-0 in a battle of unbeatens.
Timothy Bradley first burst upon the boxing scene in 2008 with a surprise victory over Junior Witter in a bout for the WBC 140 pound title and then his team aggressively matched him with some of the world’s better fighters around the junior welterweight division and he partially unified the 140 title with a come off the floor victory over WBO titlist Kendal Holt.
Then his team which is headed up by Gary Shaw Productions and Thompson Boxing Promotions matched him with the hard punching and very dangerous Nate Campbell in a controversial bout that was first declared as a victory for Bradley and then later changed to a no-contest.
Bradley had thoroughly dominated the fight through the first three rounds, but when Campbell said he couldn’t see from a cut that had been caused by a head-butt the referee stopped the fight and declared Bradley the winner. After an appeal was filed by Campbell’s promoter, Don King, the state athletic commission changed the decision to a no-contest after a requested hearing.
In boxing circles the bout is considered a victory for Bradley because he had completely outclassed Campbell and at the point the fight was stopped, odds maker probably would have made Timothy a 20-1 favorite to win since it had been such a one sided affair.
Bradley’s team sought those fights with Holt, Wittier, and Campbell because each fight enhanced Bradley’s marketability and reputation as one of the world’s elite fighters.
In the Witter fight Bradley was going for his first major world title, in the Holt fight he was trying to distinguish himself in this world of seventy so-called world champions by partially unifying titles, a feat that very few fighters accomplish. And in the Nate Campbell fight, Bradley was fighting a smaller older fighter who was moving up, but whom had a very reputable name in the industry after handing Juan Diaz his first loss.
This fight is different. Bradley’s people didn’t want to take the fight and not because they aren’t confident in Timothy, but because it’s a high risk low reward scenario because Lamont Peterson is a damn good fighter who’s relatively unknown.
After facing and beating three dangerous opponents in the row, team Bradley would have preferred a big fight with big name for a seven figure purse. Alex Camponovo, the general manager of Thompson Boxing, Bradley’s co-promoter noted, “Peterson is a very dangerous live opponent, he’s an interim champion. Bradley is cleaning out the division, he’s looking for a bigger fight, but obviously Lamont is in front of him, another undefeated young buck so it should be a great fight. ”
Bradley is in a position where he has to face the contender that nobody wants to face because after he unified the titles, his team had difficulty satisfying the organizational requirements of the two alphabet groups and he chose to keep the WBO title.
And Peterson was the WBO’s mandatory challenger and has since been elevated to the position of interim champion so Bradley has to fight Peterson or be stripped of the title which would leave him without a major world title.
Peterson is very capable fighter. As an amateur he won the 2001 Golden Gloves as well as the 2003 U.S. championships. He’s fast, has good balance, and is tall for the division at 5’9 in comparison to Bradley who is 5’6.
Bradley’s team feels his work ethic and experience at the world class level will lead him to another notable victory. His trainer Joel Diaz commented, “Lamont has never been in the ring with anybody as strong or as smart as Timothy Bradley. The opposition that Timothy has faced compared to the opposition that Peterson has faced is going to make the difference. Tim works hard, but everybody has a limit of work that they do, but Timothy goes beyond the limit. That kid is so disciplined.”
Camponovo feels the same way and commented, “I think he [Peterson] has a good trinity but I trust in our guy’s power and work and I know he is going to do very well.”
Bradley won’t be the only hungry fighter on the night of the 12th, Lamont’s Peterson experiences as a young child, homeless on the streets of Washington DC, have been well documented so you can be sure that this fight between two fighters in their mid-twenties that have a combined record of 51-0 is going to be a barn-burner.
On the same night on the undercard of Juan Diaz-Pauli Malignaggi in Chicago, Victor Ortiz is going to have his first fight since being stopped by Marcos Maidana in a bout that’s a front runner for fight of the year honors, in a can’t miss thriller against Antonio Diaz.
The thing with this fight is that Ortiz is coming off his first legitimate loss in a tough fight and now there are questions about his resolve and ability to fight through adversity and he’s going to have to answer those questions in the ring against Antonio Diaz 46-5-1, a good puncher and an experienced veteran, who after a three year lay-off has won four straight.
Antonio’s brother and trainer Joel Diaz feels like Antonio has the tools to beat Ortiz and commented, “They might consider Antonio old, but he took a long lay-off and coming back and beating Javier Castro, and that guy was tough, and I don’t think anybody out there hits as hard as Javier Castro. And even Antonio told me that in comparing Castro to Margarito that Castro can hit. I know Victor Ortiz has never been in the ring with a veteran like Antonio. And Antonio isn’t finished, he still has those old school skills and he’s going to rough him up a little bit. It will be something that Victor’s never seen before, he’s going to see that night and I don’t think he’s going to be able to come through because he’s going to be frustrated. “
There’s no doubt that offensively Victor Ortiz is a whirlwind, a force to be reckoned with, which he has demonstrated with early stoppages of Mike Arnaoutis and Carlos Maussa, but Antonio has displayed a solid chin through-out his career with the exception of the Mosley fight and plans to used his experience and his solid beard to make a war out of it and see who’s the last man standing after their revolvers are emptied.
Joel Diaz commented, “It’s going to be a great fight because Antonio’s reverse just broke back in the day so Antonio is just going to come forward. Antonio does not go back so I don’t know what Victor is going to do when he has Antonio going forward forward forward. Believe me Antonio can take a punch and I don’t think Victor has the power to hurt Antonio and if he doesn’t he’s in big trouble!”

Notes:
Favorite Quote:
Jack Dempsey once commented, “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”
You know Bob Arum had to have gotten Miguel Cotto to sign an extension of their promotional agreement. Sheriff Bob signed and sealed the Pacquiao fight in an envelope and gave it to Cotto. Who could have gotten Cotto a bigger fight?
I went to the Thompson show the night before so maybe I was tired, but I thought the Haye-Valuev fight was excruciatingly boring to watch. Everybody is thinking including me that John Ruiz is going to be lunch meat for Haye, but we have all thought that before. Remember when the Duvas gave Kirk Johnson a million dollar signing bonus because he was positioned to fight Ruiz and they thought they were buying a piece of the heavyweight championship only to have Ruiz beat the Canadian under-achiever.

PLEASE SEND E-MAIL COMMENTS TO FightFanNAtion@aol.com
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004 and now works as the head writer for FighFanNation.com. His published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”