Bradley wants Mayweather, but can it happen?

Leighton Ginn | USA TODAY sports

LAS VEGAS -- WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley said he would like people to show him the "Money," but he's not talking about greenbacks.

After defeating future Hall of Famer Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday night, Bradley was asked about fighting the top boxer of this generation, Floyd "Money" Mayweather.

"I just want to fight the best fighters out there," Bradley said. "If a Floyd Mayweather fight were to materialize, I would love to do that. ... and I would love to fight the Money team."

As things stand, however, a Mayweather-Bradley fight is unlikely. Bradley is promoted by Top Rank, which also promotes Manny Pacquaio. Mayweather and Pacquiao have been unable to come together on a multi-million dollar mega fight for years, a situation that's been blamed on their promoters. Top Rank and Golden Boy, which represents Mayweather in his fights, have been locked in a long cold war that shows no signs of thawing anytime soon. Their fighters simply are not matched up against one another.

But Mayweather (45-0, 26 KOs) might be the final frontier for Bradley (31-0, 12 KOs) who has defeated Pacquiao and Marquez in a 16-month period.

While Bradley's victory against Pacquiao was highly controversial, there was no argument with his win against Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KOs), who was coming off a sixth-round knockout of Pacquiao.

Bradley won the fight by creating distance between himself and Marquez with an effective jab that was thrown early and often. CompuBox numbers had Bradley throwing 337 jabs, connecting on 82. Marquez landed 38 of 169 jabs.

When Marquez was able to get into firing range, he often missed Bradley or was blocked. It was the kind of fight trainer Joel Diaz said Bradley had to fight to succeed.

Before the fight, Bradley said a victory should allow him to replace Marquez as No. 3 -- behind Mayweather and Andre Ward -- on most pound-for-pound lists, which ranks boxers regardless of weight class. In addition to Marquez and Pacquiao, Bradley has beaten a deep group of former and current world champions, including Devon Alexander, Lamont Peterson, Joel Casamayor, Kendall Holt, Junior Witter and Miguel Vazquez.

After his victory, Bradley was booed loudly by the sold-out crowd at the Thomas and Mack Center. Marquez added to the disrespect by saying Bradley was lucky because "He's the only undefeated fighter with two losses," a reference to Bradley's controversial split decision against Pacquiao as well as his victory against Marquez.

Putting yet another chip square on the broad shoulders of "The Desert Storm."

"I've been hated my whole career. I'm always going to be hated," Bradley said. "As long as they hate me, they can't stop me, I'm telling you. I will not stop. I'm going to keep going. That's it. I'm going to the top."

Ginn also writes for The (Palm Springs) Desert Sun