Amir Khan tells Bradley talk is cheap and plans to shut him up

Amir Khan “Let’s see if they want it for real.” pic by Sean Keating

WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, has said he would jump at the the chance to fight Timothy Bradley, and warned the American champion that talk is cheap in the wake of Bradley’s recent comments.

Bradley told Luis Sandoval of www.BoxingScene.com that he was all primed to fight Khan, when a deal was done with Frank Warren to match the pair, when Khan left Warren and signed for the US. promotion company Golden Boy, the fight was pulled and Da La Hoya and Co. had other plans.

WBO Champ Timothy Bradley

“It was done. But when Khan signed with Golden Boy, they had other plans for him. They took the fight from us, but sooner or later he’s going to have to come out and dance. He’s a good fighter. I don’t know what he’s afraid of, but he needs to fight. He needs to fight some real stiff competition,” said Bradley.

Gary Shaw, Bradley’s promoter, has said they had a fight with Khan set up for the first part of the year, but it fell apart when Khan signed with Golden Boy.

Last year following Bradley’s win over Lamont Peterson Shaw confirmed that Frank had called him to set a fight up with Khan and Bradley when he said “The fight I’m looking to do is an Amir Khan fight,”

“Right after tonight’s fight, I got a call from the head of the WBO. He told me that Frank Warren called him tonight and said he wanted to make a fight between Bradley and Khan.

“have no problem taking Timothy to England to fight Khan in front of 40,000 screaming Brits. I don’t think that’s a hard fight for Timothy. I’m surprised Warren wants that fight.”

“Khan’s been stretched before and I’m more than happy to have Timothy stretch him again,” Shaw said.

When Khan won his American debut in May against Paul Malignaggi, Khan had suggested then that he was still willing to get the fight on with Bradley and any of his other rivals at welterweight when he suggested a tournament where he would fight Marcos Maidana, Bradley to fight WBC and IBF champion Devon Alexander, and the winners would face off in an undisputed light-welterweight final to prove who is the best.

Marcos Maidana

Maidana (left) and Khan are both promoted by Golden Boy and that fight can be made.

Bradley already had a fight scheduled with Maidana, but it was canceled when Maidana cited a back injury. Later, Maidana said he wasn’t injured but had issues with his management.

After Bradley’s last  fight on Saturday against Luis Carlos Abregu, Shaw talked about how Golden Boy and Top Rank promotions would only have their top fighters fight other fighters in the promotions.

It was a sentiment HBO commentator Max Kellerman echoed during his on-air remarks following the Bradley fight.

Whenever Khan’s name as come up, Bradley and Shaw have been calling him the most protected fighter in boxing, which seems to have got up Khan’s nose and he wants to start setting the record straight as well as the light-welterweight division.

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer though has other ideas for Khan and wants to arrange an autumn fight for him against the winner of Juan Diaz and Juan Manuel Marquez, which is in Las Vegas on July 31. We await an announcement soon of Khan’s next opponent.

By Chris Maylett