Bradley: Marquez is a tougher fight for me than Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 07/17/2013 - Comments

bradley11By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s) thinks his October 5th fight against Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) will be a tougher fight for him now than a rematch against Manny Pacquiao. Bradley sees it this way because of the confidence that Marquez has going into the fight after his 6th round KO win over Pacquiao from last December.

Bradley said to the Boxing Channel “I wanted the guy that beat Manny, so I chose Marquez. He’s a tougher fight [than Pacquiao] because he’s full of confidence…he’s 40-years-old, but he most have seen something he can expose in the [Ruslan] Provodnikov, because before that his trainer didn’t want no piece of me…this will be an opportunity for me to get the respect from boxing by beating a legend like Juan Manuel Marquez and I mean business.”

It doesn’t take a genius to see how Marquez would be a tougher option than Pacquiao at this point. Pacquiao has only lost his last two fights, and really we’re his last three fights because his win over Marquez in 2011 was a fight that many boxing fans thought that Marquez should have won.

Marquez is obviously the tougher fight for Bradley because of his power, skills and counter punching ability.

What Marquez and his team saw from Bradley in his close win over Provodnikov was that Bradley had no power, no chin and not much in the defense except when he moving around a lot and just jabbing. Bradley’s defense was his feet, and he couldn’t keep moving without needing to stop every once in a while.

That’s when Provodnikov would trap him and punish him with shots. What saved Bradley in that fight was that Provodnikov disappeared during the middle of the fight and didn’t handle getting jabbed too well. Marquez will take away Bradley’s jab, cut off the ring and make him fight like he did with Provodnikov.

The only question is whether Marquez can throw as many punches as Provodnikov did. If he can’t, he may need to knock Bradley to win because he’ll get outworked if he doesn’t stop Bradley. Provodnikov had Bradley hurt at least three times in the fight and had him on the canvas in the 12th. Marquez hits just as hard as Provodnikov and he could do the same thing if he can land enough big shots.



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