More on Bradley-Holt! Post Fight Comments

Timothy Bradley: In the first round I just listened to my corner, I got up and strapped hold of my balls and said we gotta get it going now, we were behind already. Kendall Holt is a true champion, you can’t take anything away from him. It’s the toughest fight of my career, a lot tougher than Witter. I just want to thank Kendall because I know he will be back like he says he will because he is a true champion. I got up like a champion is supposed to. He stung me in the first round, I think the second [knockdown] was a bit more of push as I had my head down, but he definitely stung me. I got up though and my legs were numb, but I shook it off.

(After going down in the 12th round and waiting for the scorecards) I thought dang, I hope I didn’t give away the fight. I thought I had won every other round except for the first, I thought I had won nine or ten rounds. After I got up my corner was telling me to stay back but I thought no, I gotta go forward, I’ve got to press the action because that was a 8-10 round, I’ve got to at least make it close and make it a 9-10 round. I give him credit for knocking me down, but true champions get up. A lot of people needed to see this, I’ve never been down in my career, I’ve only been in the game for five years and I’m a young champion.

It means everything to have these two belts, it’s a childhood dream come true. I worked my butt off.

Kendall Holt: I want to give a special thanks to my team who supported me. I can’t take anything away from you, you did what you’re supposed to do. You’d never been down and you went down and got back up, that’s what champions do. Champions overcome adversity, they go down and get back up and find a way to win, and that’s what you did. There were certain things working for me when I did them tonight, I just didn’t do them enough. Timothy Bradley I thought landed a lot of good shots but a lot I didn’t think would be counted, but they were, he’s a great champion and I want to thank him for the opportunity, I’ve never been this far in my career and it was a great experience. God bless and don’t worry, Kendall Holt will be back.

Gary Shaw: I did not see the fight as a close fight. I watched the fight by myself on TV. Obviously in the first round was for Kendall Holt, but rounds two through eleven I had for Bradley and the 12th round I watched it over and over and I think it was a slip, but I assume it was a 10-8 round. It was the first time I watched a fight totally in French, so I had no interpreter, it was just myself and some water bottles, but they had the exact same score as me.

Todd duBoef: It’s always great for people to put their careers on the line and deliver. That was a very spirited effort, Timothy Bradley showed a lot of courage and really outmuscled Kendall after a tough first round, that’s what makes boxing great, he really earned those belts tonight. It was a very interesting fight; the first round had a lot of fireworks and Timothy Bradley did not give up, Kendall tried to get off and did so in the 12th but Timothy hung in there and out-gutted him on a close close decision.

Librado Andrade: To tell you the truth he hurt me a couple of times with body shots. He’s very tough. With all due respect to Lucian Bute, Tyspko takes a better shot. He’s very economical, he’s patient, he waits and counters. I’m still learning and progressing. I couldn’t see out of my left eye for the final two rounds, I was worried, I tried keeping it close. I’m not disappointed I couldn’t finish him off, I’m proud, I dropped him two times and I don’t think he’s been dropped before. The fact that I was aggressive was the difference, I was the busier fighter.