Nice Guys FinishFirst?

If there’s one thing besides the high quality of the matchup that characterizes next week’s Timothy Bradley-Lamont Peterson fight, it’s the civility with which the principals have treated another.

There has been none of the smack that was a staple of the build-up to Bradley’s fight with Kendall Holt last April, and which was initiated primarily by Holt in an attempt, one surmises, to build the gate.

At a recent press conference, Bradley, a mostly humble sort, said, “Lamont Peterson is a great fighter; I grew up with him in the amateurs. I know him very well and he knows me very well. I’m just looking forward to the fight. I’m hungry and I’m willing to show the world what I have.

“We’re both undefeated, which makes for a great fight. We both have speed and power, and we both have boxing ability, so it’s going to be a great fight. But, at the end of the day, it’s my job to teach Lamont Peterson how to lose, and that’s what I’m going to do on December. 12.”

Not exactly Clubber Lang, is he?

The most dismissive we’ve heard Bradley was when he more or less insulted Nate Campbell following their fight in August, when Campbell quit following a headbutt and then threw a temper tantrum when Bradley was awarded the win (the result was later changed to a no-contest).

But Campbell can get on anyone’s nerves.

Bradley is a solid fighter who relies on his fists rather than histrionics to get the job done.

Asked to account for his in-the-ring tenacity, he replied, “I think it just comes from my love for the sport. I just love what I do and I have that competitive nature. I made a promise to my promoter that they line ’em up and I’m going to knock them all down.

“I have a great team supporting me and I have a lot of faith in my abilities and myself. I train extremely hard for every fight like it’s my last fight, and that’s pretty much what puts me over the top, my conditioning level and how I take care of myself before and after training camp,” Bradley said.

Peterson doesn’t need to get fancy either; his story, which, like so many other fighters’ involves crippling poverty and a refusal to give into the dark abyss of hopelessness, provides writers all the angle they need.

So when he talks about the fight, which is for Bradley’s alphabet strap, it sounds like this:

“It’s a dream come true. A lot of times you talk about us being out in the street, a lot of the times it got me through just dreaming of this day of fighting to become a world champion,” Peterson said recently.

“It’s really an honor and I’m really thankful. It wasn’t just me alone. I dreamed of this day, but there was a lot of people who helped this dream come true, and I have to give thanks to them. Right now, I’m living my dream. I’m just happy about the fight and giving it my all because I know this is it.”

This sounds more like an acceptance speech at the Oscars than it does two fighters jawing before a big fight. In terms of trying to sell the fight, it’s, well, not so good, is it? How’s anyone supposed to get interested when no one is yelling or threatening or bragging?

This isn’t Roberto Duran insulting Ray Leonard’s wife, or Marco Antonio Barrera cracking Erik Morales on the chin when both are in street clothes.

It isn’t Bernard Hopkins insulting Joe Calzaghe’s glaring whiteness or Mike Tyson, the best villain of the last 30 years, expressing his desire to eat Lennox Lewis’ children.

It certainly isn’t David Haye showing up with a picture of himself holding the severed heads of the Brothers Klitschko.

Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that. Boxing is to a large degree show business, and boorishness and thuggery sell as well as they ever have. Look around.

But the most popular fighter in the world is Manny Pacquiao, who is, in terms of personality, the anti-Tyson. His fight with Miguel Cotto, another likeable if stoic gentleman fighter, did huge numbers.

The afore-mentioned Klitschko brothers are the very height of good manners and grace and there will never be a benefit held to raise money to help pay their bills.

Oscar De La Hoya, the richest fighter ever, was pleasant to every opponent save for Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga, and we’ve yet to find anyone with anything bad to say about Shane Mosley, Andre Berto, Juan Diaz, Paul Malignaggi, Juan Manuel Marquez, Chad Dawson, and so many others.

Generally, prizefighters are pleasant people to be around.

And even those who willingly, even happily, offer themselves up as the villain in fight after fight — we’re looking at you, Floyd Mayweather Jr. — often are generous of heart and humble when the cameras are off and they have only the lessons learned in a hard business borne of a harder life to show them the way.

There is room for both bad and good guys in our sport, which means there is hope yet for Bradley and Peterson to be stars.

Some random observations from last week:

Paul Williams revealed some vulnerabilities during his thrilling struggle against Sergio Martinez Saturday night, but lack of grit wasn’t one of them. He refused to lose, which is the best quality any fighter can haveÔǪ

Martinez comes out looking better despite the loss and might have gotten the nod with a different group of judges. For what it’s worth, from my couch I scored it 115-113 for WilliamsÔǪ

What was more surprising — that after all that talk Chris Arreola came in even heavier than he’d been for Vitali Klitschko, or that no one manufactured some title or another that would have made his fight against Brian Minto a 12-rounder?ÔǪ

Hey, now that Hopkins-Jones II is off (regardless of what Bernard says), why not Hopkins against Danny Green?

Speaking of which, there may not be a more dependable “OFF” button in the business than the one that resides on the side of Roy Jones’ head. You touch it, he goes to sleep. They should make kids with one of thoseÔǪ

If you got $14.95 to throw away, you can watch Oleg Maskaev against Nagy Aguilera at NESportsTV.com. I think I’d rather watch Adam Lambert covering Barry Manilow’s greatest hits while Kelly Osbourne eviscerates a basket of puppies in the foreground. But that’s just meÔǪ

Several sources report that Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are already close to agreeing to terms for a fight in March, which sure shuts up all those wise-asses who suggested Mayweather would need the equivalent of a medium-sized country’s annual GDP to get his name on a contractÔǪ

Amir Khan’s blowout of Dmitiry Salita in Newcastle on Saturday reinforced one of boxing’s great truisms: never bet on the redhead…

So Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. got busted for taking a diuretic before his fight with Troy Rowland. What does it say about your future when you need help beating a guy named Troy?

If you agree with our friends on the HBO broadcast team, who advocated breathlessly for a super heavyweight division on the basis of the way 6’3,” 263-pound Arreola manhandled 5’10,” 218-pound Brian Minto, then as a logical consequence you believe Arreola would have beaten the following fighters in their primes:

Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Joe Frazier, Jack Dempsey, Floyd Patterson, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Gene Tunney, Ezzard Charles, Jerry Quarry, George Chuvalo, Jersey Joe Walcott, Jimmy Ellis, Earnie Shavers, Max Schmeling and any other heavyweight over whom Arreola would hold a decided size advantage.

Most of those guys are or will be in the Hall of Fame. Nothing against Arreola, but he isn’t qualified to clean the bathrooms in Canastota. I’m just sayingÔǪ

Plus, wasn’t everyone saying Klitschko was too big for Arreola? If Arreola belongs at super heavyweight, where does Klitschko belong – super duper heavyweight? Where does it end?ÔǪ

There are three interesting fights next weekend including Bradley-Peterson. If you want to know who I’m picking and why – so you can place your bet on the other guy, of course – check out the latest edition of Ring Theory here: https://www.ringtv.com/blog/1384/ring_theory_raskindettloff_audio_show/

You’ll be happy you did, even if your bookie isn’t.

Bill Dettloff can be reached at [email protected]