Bradley: Pacquiao’s not the same fighter

By Boxing News - 03/22/2014 - Comments

Pacquiao_Bradley_Faceoff_140203_001aBy Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) thinks Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) is just a shell of the fighter he used to be. Bradley doesn’t know what happened to the 35-year-old Pacquiao, but he feels he lost his will to fight in aggressive manner. He still thinks the Filipino star is a good fighter, but not nearly the guy he was many yesterday’s ago. Bradley sees the change in Manny’s game and he’s not going to hide the fact by not talking about it like many of Pacquiao’s fans aren’t willing to do. Bradley’s calling it like he sees it.

“Manny, the only way you’re going to beat me is if you knock me out,” Bradley said to HBO’s Max Kellerman on their Face to Face special. “If you don’t knock me out, Manny, you’re not going to win.”

Pacquiao then said “We’ll see, we’ll see. He has to knock me out to win. I’ll tell you my plan for the fight is to throw a lot of punches. I don’t care if the fight is won by stoppage or knockout.”

Bradley: “The only thing I can say is that the hunger he’s looking for, it’s no longer there, and he can’t get it back. It’s gone. It is, Manny; it’s gone. It’s not there anymore. I don’t know how he lost it. He’s in a different place now. He’s not the same. I do not see it.”
Pacquiao is vowing to bring back the game that he lost, but it’s hard to see that happening when he’s not looked like the same fighter since 2009 when he beat Miguel Cotto.

If this was a baseball pitcher who had suddenly lost his 100 mph fastball in one of his games, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. You’d figure the guy had an off night and would be back hitting the 100 mph mark in his next game or two. But with Pacquiao, he hasn’t knocked anyone out in the past 5 years, and he’s not shined since the Cotto fight.

Pacquiao literally lost it overnight, and has looked like a shell since that time. He wants fans to know that he’s going to become the aggressive fighter he once was when he faces Bradley in a rematch on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, but the fact of the matter is that fighters don’t suddenly pick it back up after 5 years of mediocre performances.

The only real question about this fight is whether Bradley can beat Pacquiao without knocking him out. Pacquiao said it himself that the only way that Bradley can beat him is if he knocks him out, and I think he might be right about that. I’ve seen Pacquiao get two controversial wins and a controversial draw against Juan Manuel Marquez in their first three fights together, I had Pacquiao losing all three of those fights.

The shoe wasn’t on the other foot until Pacquiao found himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision for the first time in his career in his 12 round decision loss to Bradley in 2012. Then things changed a little. Bradley may indeed need a KO of Manny in order to get a win over him on April 12th, because I think the judges won’t score it against him even if Bradley puts forth a masterpiece performance.



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