Andre Ward picks Bradley to beat Pacquiao for second time

By Boxing News - 01/22/2014 - Comments

bradley700By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) appears head towards a second showdown with WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) on April 12th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum revealed on Tuesday that he’s putting the fight together between Pacquiao and Bradley, and he feels confident he’ll get the contract done so that his two Top Rank fighters can face each other.

However, this could be a disastrous mistake for Arum to let Bradley get a second shot at his gravy trainer fighter Pacquiao, because Bradley may beat him more convincingly than he did in the first fight. WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward is picking Bradley to beat Pacquiao again. Ward fought Bradley years ago when the two of them were amateurs and he says he was the toughest guy he ever fought. Ward knows Bradley’s style really well, and he believes without a doubt he’ll beat the Filipino a second time on April 12th.

“I feel he [Bradley] has the desire that can’t be denied and he has the intangibles that you can’t put your finger on what he has,” Ward said to On the Ropes Boxing Radio. “I think he’s willing to go to whatever places he needs to go to not lose…so I got to go with Tim on that.”

Arum appears to be selecting Bradley over Ruslan Provodnikov because Bradley is the less dangerous fighter. He won’t cause as much physical damage and deterioration to Pacquiao the way that Provodnikov would do. Pacquiao could fight Provodnikov and beat him by a 12 round decision like he did Brandon Rios, but Provodnikov would get his pound of flesh in the process. In other words, Pacquiao would take a lot of viscous head and body shots in the fight and he’d likely come out of it like he was dragging himself off of a battle field.

It would be brutally hard on the 35-year-old Filipino, and it’s quite possible that Provodnikov would age Pacquiao in that fight by knocking off some of what little he has left of his prime. It doesn’t matter as much if Pacquiao does the same to Provodnikov, because he’s not a cash cow like Pacquiao is. That’s why the Bradley fight is likely seen as the safer fight for Pacquiao’s health than the Provodnikov fight. But that doesn’t mean Pacquiao will beat Bradley, because he’s got the boxing skills and the style to do exactly what he did to Juan Manuel Marquez in beating him by a 12 round decision last October and making him look like an old man in the process. Bradley can do the same thing to Pacquiao if this fight takes place.

When you’re 35 and have been beaten in 2 out of your last 3 fights like Pacquiao has, there are no easy wins at this point if he’s going to be matched against actual welterweight contenders in the top 5 and not slow ex-lightweights being dragged into the ring off of a loss against Mike Alvarado a gift decision over Richard Abril.



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