Amir Khan's motivation in calling out sidelined Tim Bradley

WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Amir Khan has once again called out unbeaten WBO champion Timothy Bradley, who he at one time looked set to fight on July 23rd.

As events conspired, Khan instead wound up fighting Zab Judah in July, adding the IBF belt to his WBA title, and Bradley was sued by his former promoters who claim among other things that he breached his contract with them.

Since then Bradley has remained sidelined and looks likely to be inactive for some time, while Khan has been making plans to move up to welterweight after a final 140lb fight at the end of the year, with his eventual target being Floyd Mayweather at 147lbs.

Mayweather though, despite initially seeming interested, rebuffed Khan recently and hinted that he isn't a big enough draw in the United States.

Khan, while of course not a huge draw in America per se, is a big seller in the U.K, and apart from Manny Pacquiao is probably the biggest draw Mayweather could look to fight right now.

Originally in response to Mayweather's remarks, Khan then launched a twitter tirade decrying more or less the entire light welterweight division, and chiefly among them Tim Bradley:

"July 23rd we offered the fight to Bradley he said no, Marquez he said no, Morales he also said no, glad Judah took the fight on, I want to clean up the 140 division but no1 wants to fight me, Tim Bradley might as well retire undefeated as a fight with him vs Floyd or Manny will never happen and doesn't make sense, he cant even sell a 100 tickets in his back garden and doesn't want to fight the best in the 140 p**** I fought Kotelnik Mallignaggi Maidana Mccloskey Judah all who were in the top 10 the rest don't want to fight apart from Peterson and Guerrero."

"Bradley is very inactive he might as well Fedex his belt to me or get in the ring in December so I can slap the sh*t out of him, Come on Timothy Baby lets do it for the fans."

Whatever else Bradley might be however, he hasn't ever been known as a fighter to duck a tough opponent.

In his last outing he took on an unbeaten champion in Devon Alexander, then 21-0, and won convincingly if not eye pleasingly.

Before that he moved up to welterweight and debuted against another undefeated and hard hitting fighter in Luis Abregu then 29-0, and before that he handed Lamont Peterson, then 27-0, his first defeat.

So judging by his track record, Bradley isn't a fighter known to take either easy fights or to avoid taking risks at times.

With as much on the line as there could potentially be for Khan and Bradley in the near future however, a fight between them now might not necessarily be in their best interests anyway.

Another win over a decent 140lb opponent sets Khan on the path that should lead him to a showdown with Floyd Mayweather sometime next year.

Bradley, after his current legal problems are solved, appears to be on Bob Arum's radar, meaning that a big money fight with Manny Pacquiao is also potentially on the table.

A loss for either takes away or at least delay potential bouts with Pacquiao or Mayweather, costing the loser millions in the process.

Aside from Khan and Bradley's future plans getting in the way though, the biggest issue right now is timing.

Bradley can't fight until he resolves his legal issues and finds a new promoter, a process that will likely take the next few months at least.

Khan will probably look to finalize a December opponent sometime towards the end of September, well before Bradley will have started actively looking for opponents again.

Calling out Bradley in the knowledge that a fight is impossible for the time being anyway then seems like empty bravado from Khan, even if his previous attempt to make the fight happen was commendable.

To those unaware of Bradley's predicament though it may simply appear as if he is ducking Khan by staying silent while Khan appears to be attempting to unify the division.

Shad Jones, Pitt: "Bradley would fight Khan but he can't right now and Khan knows it, that's why he's calling him out so much"