Pacquiao: The only way Bradley can beat me is by knocking me out

By Boxing News - 02/04/2014 - Comments

pac4(Photo credit: Chris Farina/Top Rank) By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) doesn’t think it’s possible for WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) to outbox him in their fight on April 12th. Pacquiao sees his superior hand speed is being too good for Bradley to be able to earn another 12 round decision against him like he got 2 years ago in their infamous fight in June of 2012. Pacquiao won’t let Bradley get escape with another win over him.

“I am still faster than Bradley. The only way Bradley can beat me this time is to knock me out. I will be the aggressor . I will throw a lot of punches at him – more than I threw against [Brandon] Rios – and I will land them. Last time I was too nice. This time, I will finish what I start.”

I got almost sense the anger coming from Pacquiao for this fight. That’s not a good sign. The last thing that Pacquiao needs is to lose his self control and start fighting like the wild man that was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez two years ago. This isn’t Brandon Rios that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum hand-picked for him to look good against. This is a highly skilled fighter with a lot of speed of his own, and a crafty counter-punching style that could give Pacquiao nightmares if he goes all out against him trying to throw a lot of punches like he was trying to do against Marquez before he was rudely knocked out.

Pacquiao has the edge in hand speed, but it’s not a big enough edge for him to be able to count on it alone for him to win this fight. Bradley’s hand speed is too close to that of his own for him to be able to do what he did to the over-matched Rios last November. Pacquiao is going to need to use his mind to beat Bradley by being the smarter fighter. But unfortunately it doesn’t look like Pacquiao plans on using brain power against Bradley in the rematch. He seems like he’s going to try and go primitive on him, and overwhelm him with an all-out assault of punches. It can work, but it can also fail miserably for Pacquiao. He’s not too far removed from his knockout loss to Marquez, and the last thing Pacquiao needs is to have his chin tapped by Bradley and end up going to sleep again. Pacquiao said it himself after the Rios fight: “He hurt me.” If a limited fighter with no hand speed like Rios was able to hurt Pacquiao, then Bradley could do far worse to him.

Trainer Freddie Roach needs to sit Pacquiao down and tell him to calm down, and not blow it again. But knowing Roach, he’s probably telling him the opposition by telling him to try and be the Manny he was when he was 25-years-old. That was Roach’s great fight strategy for Pacquiao’s last fight against Marquez, and it worked out well for Marquez. This would be a good time for Pacquiao to dump Roach and look to go in another direction by hiring a trainer that knows something about teaching defense like Virgil Hunter. If Pacquiao doesn’t want to fire Roach, then he should hire Hunter and have him work with Roach the same way that Alex Ariza was with the two trainers sharing time with the Filipino star.



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