By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) is the favorite to beat undefeated challenger Timothy Bradley (28-0, 12 KO’s) in their June 9th match-up at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao’s speed and power advantage is seen as the tipping point in this fight. However, Pacquiao was also a favorite in his last fight against 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez last November and also had the speed and power advantage in that fight as well. We all know what happened there.

Marquez fought Pacquiao to a stand still and ended up losing by a very, very controversial 12 round decision. To this day, many boxing fans still believe the wrong fighter had his hand raised at the end of it, as Marquez really did a great job of out-boxing Pacquiao and exposing a lot of his limitations.

Bradley has a lot of the same skills that Marquez brought to the table in his Pacquiao fight, only Bradley is younger and much more of an inside threat than Marquez was. What gives Bradley an excellent chance of beating Pacquiao is his ability to put a lot of pressure on the aging Filipino from round one to tire him out and force him to work harder than his body is capable.

At 33, Pacquiao has been having problems with cramping and it’s something that will likely reoccur in this fight if Bradley can put a lot of pressure on Pacquiao to get him moving around to try and escape the pressure. Pacquiao has always been good at dishing out punishment but he’s getting older now and getting hit a lot by a younger fighter in his prime could be the point where we’ll see Pacquiao get beaten. I have no doubts he’ll lose the fight. My only question is whether Bradley will be given the decision by the judges.