A couple of years ago, many boxing fans and analysts were proclaiming the light welterweight division as the best in the sport. The quartet of Amir Khan, Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander and Marcos Maidana headed the pack at 140lbs with mouth-watering unification bouts on offer and the possibility of thrilling match ups between any of the protagonists. However, not everything is always as it seems.
Khan and Maidana did thrill in their December 2010 clash that scooped fight of the year honours and after surviving a late onslaught, Khan emerged victorious to set up a clash with the winner of Bradley-Alexander a month later. The fight between the unbeaten young Americans was billed as the ‘Perfect Match Up’ with some comparing the magnitude of the event to Hagler-Hearns, but it was an anticlimax and ultimately an ugly spectacle, with Bradley winning via tenth-round technical decision after Alexander claimed lack of vision following a clash of heads.
Bradley remained undefeated however and on course for a huge summer date with Khan to unify WBO, WBC and WBA titles. But as often is the case in this sport, the fight didn’t materialise. Bradley was stripped of his WBC strap for refusing to fight Khan and eventually moved up to welterweight to defeat Manny Pacquiao, a result that remarkably halted progress in his career due to its controversial and widely contested scoring. Khan meanwhile would go on to lose back-to-back fights against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, whilst Alexander and Maidana would eventually have an uninspiring clash at welterweight over ten rounds.
The hype at that time failed to deliver. Early in 2013, the buzz around the light welterweight division has now returned.
