Danny Garcia Blasts Timothy Bradley: “He ain’t nothing but a Top Rank puppet”

Garcia Garcia

Last Saturday night, after WBO welterweight champ Terence
Crawford stopped challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas in the main event of a Top Rank
on ESPN card, Bradley, ESPN Boxing’s color commentator, went all-in on the PBC
welterweights who some see as avoiding Crawford.

“The only real man over at PBC is Deontay Wilder,"
Bradley exclaimed. “This man [Terence Crawford] is begging to fight you…
All you welterweights, you guys need to put your big boy pants on and come over
here and make this fight with Terence Crawford because he’s the best welterweight
in the world."

PBC fighter and also two-division former world champ Danny
Garcia was asked about Bradley’s attack by media after the press conference to
announce his January 25 bout with Ivan Redkach and didn’t hold back.

“I used to like Tim Bradley," Garcia said. "I don’t
respect him anymore, though. He ain’t nothing but a Top Rank puppet who fought
Top Rank opponents his whole career. He never fought anyone outside of Top
Rank. Since you’re so worried, come out of retirement…You"re a Top Rank
fighter, fight Crawford. It"s an easy fight to be made."

At the crux of this Terence Crawford/Top Rank-PBC beef is
the business realities separating the two sides of the fence.

Crawford is signed to Top Rank, which has an exclusive
output deal with ESPN.

Meanwhile, every other top welterweight at the moment—Errol Spence,
Manny Pacquiao, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia—works under the PBC
banner, which has exclusive output deals with Fox and Showtime.

Across-the-fence deals have been made between rival business
entities in the past, notably the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao blockbuster
in 2015 and, currently, the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury rivalry, headed to a
second meeting this coming February.

In boxing, where there is big money, there will often be a
greater willingness to reach out and make deals with even the bitterest of
rivals. Unfortunately, in the particular case of Crawford, that huge money isn’t
there and PBC, having five of the six top welterweights in the world, can make a
plethora of big fights "in house" without having to welcome the Omaha, Nebraska
native into the mix.

Crawford promoter and Top Rank bossman Bob Arum has been
aggressive in his calling out of PBC fighters. The aged Hall of Fame promoter has
masterfully changed the public narrative from an acknowledgment that five of
the six top 147-pounders in the world are, actually, fighting one another to
the reality that his man has been left out of the loop.

Bradley, apparently, was very keen on picking up this
partisan talking point and, in the heat of the moment while basking in the glow
of an impressive Crawford win, pushed that company line to the extreme.

Backlash from fans and others in the boxing community was
swift and harsh, pointing to various points of hypocrisy in Bradley’s
statement, based on his own business dealings.

Trainer Kevin Cunningham offered some of the fiercest
criticism for Bradley’s remarks, saying via Twitter:

“PBC has the marquee names in the division. The last
time that I checked, they were all fighting one another. So this makes them
less than men Timmy? TR did it for years and Bradley participated (Pac/Mar 4x,
Pac/Bradley 3x, Pac/Mor 3x, Pac/Barr 2x) I guess different rules for Bob.

“Tim Bradley disrespects the entire PBC roster because Top Rank doesn’t have marquee names for Crawford. Somebody tell Bradley buck dancing for Bob won’t get the fights done. It’s a shame Bud’s caught up in that nonsense!"

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