By John F. McKenna (McJack): Five time trainer of the year Freddie Roach is well attuned to the fighting style of World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (28-0-1 NC, 12 KO’s) and will prepare his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) with that in mind. Pacquiao and Bradley will square off on June 9 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

Bradley is a rough, tough customer who comes in using his elbows and an occasional unintentional head butt or two in the course of a fight. Roach has been scouring the fighters of the world who best replicate Bradley’s fighting style and so far he has found three. He will bring one of the trio to Baguio City in the Philippines to assist Pacquiao in his training. He is Ruslan Provodnikov who has an impressive 21-1, 14 KO’s record as a professional. Provodnikov hails from Beryozovo in Siberia.

Many boxing pundits have openly questioned whether Pacquiao will still have the same dedication to boxing since he turned his life around and had a spiritual experience a couple of months ago. Roach however indicates that he is not worried that Pacquiao has lost the killer instinct or the drive that has made him the elite fighter he has been for the last several years. To some extent Roach feels that some of the distractions that hampered Manny prior to his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez will no longer be a factor. Although Roach did not elaborate, it was alleged that Pacquiao engaged in late night partying, gambling as well as gambling before his life changing spiritual awakening.

Roach is confident that the training regimen which was successful in bringing “Pacman” to the top of his game will enable him to overcome Bradley, although he concedes that “Desert Storm” is indeed a tough customer. As has been the case for Pacquiao’s last several fights his training will be divided between Baguio City and Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Pacquiao will begin training in Baguio on April 16.

Roach believes that it is important for Manny to knock out Bradley to erase the stigma of his unimpressive fight with Marquez which many boxing fans thought he lost. For that reason Freddie is eager to begin the training regimen that will prepare Pacquiao for the fight.