Bradley a major player at 140 pounds
AP Photo/Ryan RemiorzTimothy Bradley, left, looked vulnerable at times, but that might be what lands him the big paydays. MONTREAL -- He had to climb back off the canvas twice to win, but Timothy Bradley's immediate prospects in the lucrative 140-pound sweepstakes might have been enhanced almost as much by knockdowns as by the two belts he wore out of the ring Saturday.
"Everybody saw those two knockdowns, and they'll all be chasing me now," said Bradley, 24. "But they don't know how hard Kendall Holt hits."
An overjoyed Bradley collapsed to his knees at the announcement of the decision at the Bell Centre, where he added Holt's WBO belt to the WBC version he already owned.
"I'm disappointed in myself," Holt said. "I let my corner down, and I let my fans down."
Holt, 27, floored Bradley less than two minutes into the 140-pound title unification bout, and he floored him again with barely a minute to go in the last round. His problem came in the 10 rounds in between, when Bradley relied on his superior quickness to repeatedly beat Holt to the punch. That, combined with a surprisingly lethargic response from Holt, combined to heavily weigh the scorecards against him.
Although all three judges gave Holt 10-8 margins in the first and last rounds, they didn't give him much in between. Bradley (24-0, 11 KOs) rolled to a unanimous (114-112, 115-111 twice) decision to set himself up as a key in a talent-laden division.
Put it this way: The presence of Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Juan Urango, Nate Campbell and the suddenly resurgent Randall Bailey has been enough to bring Floyd Mayweather Jr. back to the gym, but among that impressive array, Bradley is the only guy who has two belts.
Bradley describes himself as "a young champion" and is quick to point out that he has been in the game only five years. But following an early lapse born largely of impetuousness, he became the more disciplined boxer as the fight with Holt went on. He kept Holt off balance behind a quick jab and a relentless, if not particularly exciting, attack to the body that consumed the better part of the evening.
Bradley made his play for the crowd when he and his cornermen arrived in the ring outfitted in clothing of the colors of the hometown Canadiens hockey team. That he came out with guns blazing at the opening bell also endeared him to the crowd. Yet that early display of aggression almost cost him before the first round ended.
Bradley had just cut loose with a quick one-two combination and still seemed to be admiring his handiwork when Holt unleashed a left hook that flattened him. Bradley might as well have served his head up on a tee.
It was a punch with which Holt has knocked out lesser men, and Bradley was, by his own account, shaken. He bounced straight up, and then, realizing he might better recuperate on the safety of the floor, went back to his knee and sought refuge in the canvas, taking referee Michael Griffin's count before rising at eight and riding out the storm.
In 24 professional fights, Bradley had never been down. He said he had retaken the knee on the advice of trainer Joel Diaz. "It's what I've been taught to do," he said. "It's one of those things we practice in the gym, just in case it ever comes up."
"He did the right thing," promoter Gary Shaw said. Yet because Bradley was going to get an eight count anyway, it didn't seem particularly material whether he did it on his feet or on his knee.
For the next 10 rounds, Bradley was a buzz saw, interrupted only on those rare occasions when Holt would stick a stiff jab in his face. Although Griffin warned Bradley for straying low with his punches on several occasions, Holt was guilty of the same tactic on occasion and seemed far too willing to let Bradley dictate the terms of the battle. By the time he put him on the deck again, it was far too late to mean much on the scorecards, a fact Holt seemed to concede when he lamented, "I gave away the middle rounds with a lack of work."
Bradley acknowledged the same. "He definitely rocked me with that first knockdown," he said. "But in the one in the last round, I'm not even sure it was a knockdown at all. I thought he might have been pushing my head down."
Holt didn't, but he also didn't land a clean punch. The final knockdown barely grazed the top of Bradley's head, but the latter seemed to lose his balance ducking it. Although Bradley never hit the floor, his right glove did, making Griffin's knockdown ruling correct.
Holt (25-3, 13 KOs) wasn't bothered by either the borderline low blows or the later clash of heads that brought blood trickling from his eyelid. But he conceded both had been distractions.
When the verdict came in for Bradley, tears of joy spilled forth from the winner. For the loser, who had never before lost a fight that had gone to the scorecards, "it was just one more thing" to add to a lifetime list of disappointments, Holt said.
"This means the world to me," Bradley said. "I knew I had to prove myself by coming off the canvas twice, but Kendall Holt will be back. If you give him a chance to think out there, he'll get you. I let him think twice tonight, and he floored me both times."
George Kimball, who writes for the Irish Times and Boxing Digest as well as ESPN.com, won the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism in 1985. He is the author of the widely acclaimed new book "Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing."
