By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) is predicting dire straights for the aging Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) if he loses their long-awaited rematch on April 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley thinks Pacquiao can’t afford another loss because it’ll show the boxing world that it’s over for him.
What Bradley is saying is that he has the potential to put Pacquiao out of his misery in this fight, and send him into retirement.
Pacquiao laughs at the thought of him facing retirement should he lose the fight, and he points out this this is exactly what they were saying before his fight against Top Rank stable fighter Brandon Rios last November. Of course, there’s a big difference between the talent of Rios and that of Bradley, so hopefully Pacquiao realizes that he’s got a much different situation with this fight
Bradley said to ESPN “Manny knows this is do or die for him. If Manny doesn’t win this fight then his career will be over. So this is a must-win situation for Manny Pacquiao. I already beat him once. This fight is for redemption to get credit I didn’t get in the first fight because people felt I didn’t win. That’s what it’s about for me. For him, he has to come to prove that he can earn that title. He’s got to come earn it back, and it’s the end of the road if he doesn’t.”
In theory, Bradley is right about Pacquiao facing the end of his career should he get beaten again by him. But in reality, Pacquiao isn’t going anywhere even if Bradley knocks him out cold on April 12th. Do you honestly think Bob Arum will let his number 1 money fighter Pacquiao retire when there’s so much money still out there to be made? Arum could still make a bundle with Pacquiao just by making a slight adjustment with his match-making by focusing on putting him in with his Top Rank stable fighters Rios, Mikey Garcia, Mike Alvarado, Terence Crawford, and Khabib Allakhverdiev. Juan Manuel Marquez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. obviously would be fights that couldn’t happen if Pacquiao loses again to Bradley, but a loss wouldn’t mean the end of Pacquiao’s career. It would likely mean that Arum would make some adjustments to the match-making for him, that’s all. It would mean more boring fights for Pacquiao, but at least it wouldn’t be over.
For Bradley to beat Pacquiao in the rematch he’s going to have to mix it up with him a lot more than he did in their previous fight in 2012, because it’s very doubtful that the three judges assigned to the fight will give Bradley many rounds if he chooses to move constantly around the ring and play keep away. That may have worked with the first set of judges in 2012, but it probably won’t work this time around.
Bradley will be expected to get in the trenches and fight Pacquiao. Bradley’s hunt and peck style of fighting won’t get the job done. If all the judges see is him backing away for two-thirds of every rounds with Pacquiao constantly coming forward, then they’ll give those rounds to Pacquiao instead of Bradley.
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