By Chris Williams: With Manny Pacquiao’s scalp now on his resume, WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley feels he’s in the position to give advice to Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) in what he needs to do in order to send Pacquiao down for his third straight loss on November 23rd.
Bradley sees this as a very tough fight for Rios due to Pacquiao’s speed and power, but he definitely sees it as a winnable fight for Rios if he’s smart and chooses to get in close and stay there against Pacquiao to prevent him from using his speed and in and out attacks to dominate.
“He’s [Rios] going to have to close the distance,” Bradley said to RingTV. “He’s going to have to get close and stay close and punch. Rios likes to bring pressure and to throw good uppercuts and good body shots as well, and I think that that’s his best chance of being effective in this fight.”
I believe that Rios is going to surprise a lot of people with his ability to fight on the outside. He showed it in his last fight against Mike Alvarado by staggering him with a jab from the outside. The problem is Rios immediately stopped jabbing after that and rarely threw any jabs for the remainder of the fight. Rios has since commented that he wished that he had used his jab from the outside because he didn’t realize how well he was able to control the fight just by using that punch.
You can bet that the taller, longer-armed Rios will choose to use his reach to jab the shorter Pacquiao from the outside and do things that even Juan Manuel Marquez couldn’t do in their last fight. Marquez isn’t as tall as Rios and doesn’t have the same reach. Rios is going to be a much different fighter for Pacquiao than Marquez, and I can see him doing well on the outside and surprising a lot of people on November 23rd.
Bradley says that Rios can’t let Pacquiao use movement against him because he thinks Pacquiao will be able to get in quickly to land his shots from angles and then get away at an angle. Bradley thinks Rios needs to be ready for the different methods that Pacquiao will be attacking him, because he doesn’t see Pacquiao coming straight at Rios in straight lines like he did when he was knocked out by Marquez last December. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach won’t let Pacquiao make that same mistake.
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