By John F. McKenna (McJack): Former title contender Joel Diaz, who turned trainer and has guided World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (28-0-1 NC, 12 KO’s) since he began his professional boxing career in August 2004 says that his star pupil is already in tremendous condition in the lead up to his fight with Filipino superstar WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s). Bradley and Pacquiao will square off on June 9 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

Diaz maintains that as things now stand “Desert Storm” looks exceptionally sharp and acknowledges that he has to guard against him peaking too soon. In an effort to keep Bradley’s sparring partners fresh, Diaz has been rotating them frequently.

When preparing a fighter for any upcoming fight the challenge is to come up with sparring partners who closely emulate the opponent he will face on fight night. When attempting to find a sparring partner whose style is similar to Pacquiao’s however, Diaz admits the task is near impossible.

“Pacman” has a style that would be difficult, as Diaz points out, to prepare for. His blazing speed, constant lateral movement in addition to his power has not been displayed by any other active fighter. Many of Pacquiao’s movements when he engages an opponent in the ring are unpredictable and simply put, cannot be duplicated by a sparring partner.

Obviously being Bradley’s trainer, Diaz believes that his fighter will emerge victorious in his bout with Pacquiao. He believes that if he applies pressure without getting reckless and throws counter punches at opportune times, Manny will become frustrated in the middle rounds and at that time he will be ripe for the picking.

Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach has taken steps to bring in sparring partners whose styles he feels are similar to Bradley’s. Rusian Provodnikov, for instance was brought in to Baguio City all the way from Siberia to help prepare “Pacman” for his upcoming fight with Bradley.

One of Roach’s main concerns is to help his fighter prepare for the inevitable head butts that any fighter who fights Bradley must contend with. Although Roach will not elaborate fully on how he plans to counter the head butts, it is logical to assume that moving to the side and drilling the incoming Bradley with uppercuts would be an option to discourage Timothy and possibly stop him in his tracks.