A 140-Pound Tournament in Works?

Wouldn't you like to see a junior welterweight (140 pounds) tournament featuring IBF and WBC titlist Devon Alexander, WBO king Tim Bradley (pictured at right), WBA belt holder Amir Khan and WBA and WBO lightweight (135 pounds) champ Juan Manuel Marquez?

If yes, then you're not alone, because so would Bradley's promoter, Gary Shaw.

In fact, Shaw claims that he proposed such an event, face-to-face, recently to officials at the New York's offices of HBO, which has all four of the champions under contract.

According to his plan, Shaw said that the matchups would be determined lottery style -- drawn by the fighters from a hat or from a box.

"If we pulled [the name of] Devon Alexander, then we would fight Devon Alexander. Golden Boy said no. Amir Khan doesn't want to fight anybody," said Shaw, who promotes Bradley. "Bradley will fight anybody and to Devon Alexander's credit, he will fight anybody. We would do it and Devon Alexander would do it."

Shaw said that he proposed that the winner of such a bout receive $500,000, but that he believes that Golden Boy Promotions, which handles Khan and Marquez, would not allow Khan to participate.

"They want to keep everything in house," said Shaw, indicating that Golden Boy is pushing a potential matchup between Marquez and Khan, who are from Mexico and England, respectively.

"I don't think that the two Americans should be forced to face each other. We would fight Alexander, no problem, but not for peanuts," said Shaw. "But if they want to match Khan with Marquez for a lot more money, then that's not going to work."

Shaw unveiled his idea during Monday's conference call with reporters which was promoting the 26-year-old Bradley's July 17, over-the-weight-limit welterweight (147 pounds) bout opposite Carlos Luis Abregu.

Nicknamed "The Desert Storm," Bradley (25-0, 11 knockouts), of Palm Springs, Calif., will meet Abregu (29-0, 23 KOs), of Salta Salta, Argentina, in an HBO-televised bout slated at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Bradley is coming off December's 12-round, unanimous decision victory over 26-year-old Lamont Peterson (28-1, 14 KOs), of Washington, D.C., against whom Bradley won virtually every round and whom Bradley dropped for the first time in his career.

"I feel that I should get my just due sooner or later, but if that doesn't happen, then I'll continue on to fight and continue on and win," said Bradley. "As long as I continue to do that, then the big fights have to happen sooner or later."

Nicknamed "The Great," the 23-year-old, southpaw Alexander (20-0, 13 KOs) will make the second defense of his WBC title, and the first of his IBF crown, against Ukrainian-born 32-year-old former titlist Andriy Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KOs) of Germany before his hometown fans in St. Louis on Aug. 7.

Alexander (pictured at right) is coming off of March's eighth-round knockout of then-IBF champion, Juan Urango (22-3-1, 17 KOs), who was stopped for the first time in his career.

The 36-year-old Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KOs) has a July 31 defense against former two-time world champion Juan Diaz (35-3, with 17 KOs) that is a rematch of their February 2009 Fight Of The Year, which Marquez won by ninth-round knockout.

The 23-year-old Khan (23-1, 17 KOs) is coming off of May's relentless battering of Paulie Malignaggi (27-4, five KOs) on the way to an 11th-round knockout.

Bradley was originally scheduled to face the 27-year-old Abregu on June 19 until being replaced in February by 26-year-old WBA interim junior welterweight titlist Marcos Rene Maidana (28-1, 27 KOs) for a bout slated for the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

But Bradley-Maidana was subsequently postponed to July 17 and then canceled on May 3 due to back injuries reportedly suffered by Maidana. As it turned out, however, those postponements by Maidana may have stemmed from some serious managerial problems, according to Shaw.

"I was very angry that he made Timothy Bradley sit on the sidelines and that he lied and said that he was injured two times. He lied and he should be punished for it. But it was great for Abregu. It opened up some doors for him."