TIMOTHY BRADLEY vs LUIS CARLOS ABREGU

There are echoes of the past about Saturday’s non-title welterweight fight between junior welter champion Timothy Bradley and Luis Carlos Abregu on HBO. Once, champions routinely engaged in non-title bouts. Nowadays, every fight, it seems, has to have some sort of title or “eliminator” tag.  
 
Bradley seeks the big fights. He would love to meet Amir Khan or Devon Alexander, rival champions at 140 pounds. It has not proved possible to bring these bouts to fruition. So Bradley is moving up seven pounds to test the welterweight waters, as it were.
 
Abregu is the underdog but no pushover. The Argentinean has the height and reach advantages and, like Bradley, he is undefeated. Bradley has never been hit by a full welterweight, and Abregu is a good puncher. We could see Bradley getting buzzed in this fight.
 
One has to like Bradley. He is a pleasantly mannered young man who is dedicated to his boxing and maintains a high level of fitness. He sets a fast pace and he keeps it up throughout a fight. Bradley is not what one could call a seriously hard hitter, with just 11 stoppage wins in his 26 fights — and he hasn’t stopped an opponent in the past three years — but he keeps the punches coming.  I am expected a pleasing contest on Saturday, because we know that Bradley will be waging a high-activity fight and Abregu is likely to be meeting him with counters, trying to make his welterweight firing power tell.
 
You look at Bradley’s low stoppage percentage and your first thought is that if he wins — as he should — it will be on points. I am giving Bradley a good chance at getting the stoppage, though.
 
I think that Bradley will be stronger than ever and probably punching harder at 147 pounds. If he can keep hitting Abregu — and I think he can — he can wear him down.
 
Abregu is a fighter who can be hurt. He was down twice against Irving Garcia and he was also dropped in his fight with Richard Gutierrez. Because Abregu is willing to let his punches go, he can get caught himself. I can visualise Bradley backing up Abregu and getting off punches at a fast clip, his hand speed bothering and bewildering the Argentinean fighter.
 
Bradley might be one of the best fighters in the world and I think that he is on a different level to Abregu. The Argentinean boxer’s size difference is what makes the match interesting. I believe, though, that Bradley’s greater talent will start to tell by the middle of the bout and I think he will have Abregu under increasing pressure as the fight goes deeper. I believe that Bradley wants to give a special type of performance, and I think that he will deliver. A quick win by Bradley would surprise me, but I think he can start to overwhelm Abregu in the later rounds and stop him in, say, the 11^th round.