Roach doesn’t think Bradley can beat Pacquiao backing up all night

By Boxing News - 02/11/2014 - Comments

bradley787By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) has already said that he’s not going to stand in one place and let the Filipino star Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) land his power shots when the fight on April 12th. Bradley says he’s going to use movement, and pick his spots for when he feels that Pacquiao is vulnerable for his attacks.

Bradley thinks Pacquiao can’t handle movement, and doesn’t know how to cut off the ring on his opponents. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t see Bradley’s movement working this time around like it did in their fight in 2012, because Pacquiao will be staying right with Bradley no matter where he goes in the ring. He’s not going to give Bradley any space. In other words, Pacquiao will be following the blue print created by Ruslan Provodnikov in his fight with Bradley last year in which Provodnikov pressured Bradley constantly for 12 rounds, and literally made him into get numerous dog fights that left Bradley badly concussed by the end of the fight.

“When he exchanges with Manny, Manny is the better, faster puncher, and the better puncher of the two, and like Ruslan was, and he’ll be able to hurt him,” Roach said via the sweetscience. “If he runs the whole night long, then he’ll make it a little bit of a boring fight. But it’s hard to win backing up, so there will be points where he’ll have to exchange with us.”

Bradley pats himself on the back for his ability to move around the ring and prevent stronger fighters from being able to nail him with shots. However, with the blueprint created by Provodnikov, Bradley is fighting on borrowed time. He got past Juan Manuel Marquez, but that was only because Marquez fought a dumb fight by waiting on Bradley to attack him instead of following what Provodnikov did to Bradley. Roach obviously sees what most wide awake trainers saw in Bradley’s fight with Provodnikov. He’s vulnerable when you stay on top of him due to his lack of power, and fragile chin.

If Roach can keep Pacquiao constantly in Bradley’s face at all times in their fight on April 12th, then this could be a very quick night for Pacquiao. Bradley won’t last long if he has Pacquiao hitting him nonstop. Provodnikov ran out of gas in the middle of the rounds otherwise he would have likely knocked Bradley out. But if Roach has Pacquiao fighting smart, he could be the first fighter to defeat Bradley.



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