Hatton: Bradley is going to give Pacquiao problems

By Boxing News - 05/29/2012 - Comments

Image: Hatton: Bradley is going to give Pacquiao problemsBy Chris Williams: Former two division world champion Ricky Hatton believes that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is going to really have his hands full against unbeaten Tim Bradley on June 9th.

He sees Pacquiao having problems with Bradley’s defensive ability and counter punching. Hatton feels that Pacquiao will likely win the fight, but it’s going to be a tough.

Hatton said “I think Bradley is going to use his boxing ability and box on his back foot and that’s where he’s going to cause Manny a few problems.”

Hatton is right about that. Bradley’s boxing skills are going to be a serious problem for Pacquiao. He’s already slowing down and he was hit a lot in his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez last November. Hatton saw the fight and he felt that Marquez should have been given the decision.

Bradley has the fresh blueprint from Marquez to work with for this fight, and that gives him a real advantage. Bradley will know exactly how much harder he needs to work to get the decision. The point is to counter Pacquiao’s shots, but also to put on enough pressure to keep Pacquiao thinking. Bradley can’t just counter. He’s got to take the fight to him.

Hatton was stopped by Pacquiao in the 2nd round in 2009. Hatton showed exactly how you don’t want to fight Pacquiao. Hatton was leaping in with big left hooks and it didn’t take Pacquiao long to figure out what to do to counter him. He blasted him out quick.

Bradley won’t be stupid enough to fight like Hatton, so he’ll have a much better chance of giving Pacquiao a lot of problems. The only thing that Bradley has to worry is making sure he doesn’t get caught early by Pacquiao. That’s the biggest danger. If Bradley can take Pacquiao deep, he’ll be able to wear him down like Marquez did.



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