(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Jason Kim: If Tim Bradley can get by WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on June 9th, then he wants to come gunning for Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his next fight, provided that Bradley and Pacquiao don’t fight an immediate rematch.
Bradley said to the Examiner.com “He’s beatable [Pacquiao]. Floyd Mayweather is beatable too. He’s the next one on my list after I take care of Pacquiao.”
Mayweather is starting to look a little old, and he seems to have lost both hand speed and foot speed. We saw a little of that in his last fight against Victor Ortiz. We may have seen Mayweather struggle in the later rounds if Ortiz hadn’t come unglued in the 4th round and head-butted Mayweather. At 35, Mayweather is at the age where most fighters’ skills start to diminish. Miguel Cotto, 31, could take advantage of that on Saturday night if he’s aggressive and takes the fight to Mayweather.
That’s a big ask for Bradley to beat Pacquiao because he doesn’t have the same hand speed or power as the Filipino fighter. When you’re not only slower and weaker than you’re opponent, it puts a fighter in a situation where he’s got to some up with some other part of his game to balance that out. For Bradley, it could be his heart, youth, stamina or aggression. Whatever it is, he’s going to have to possess a number of strengths to counterbalance his lack of speed and power.
Having Pacquiao get the better of him in every exchange won’t win the fight for Bradley. His only chance is if he can force the fight on the inside where Pacquiao isn’t quite as good. Bradley will have to stay on top of Pacquiao, because his trainer Freddie Roach will be giving him instructions to move around the ring if Pacquiao starts to struggle on the inside the same way he did against Antonio Margarito in their fight in 2010.
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