Mancini picks Pacquiao to easily beat Bradley

By Boxing News - 03/02/2014 - Comments

pac888By Chris Williams: Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini is picking Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) to easily avenge his loss to WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) next month in their long-awaited rematch on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. For Mancini, picking Pacquiao is pretty easy because he felt that Pacquiao beat Bradley the last time they fought, so it’ll be just a simple matter of being a little bit better in the rematch so that he doesn’t wind up losing another controversial decision.

The only way Pacquiao can flub it up in the rematch is if he goes overboard with his trainer Freddie Roach’s fountain of youth kick, and tries to fight like a youngster instead of a 35-year-old fighter who was recently knocked out cold by Juan Manuel Marquez. Believe me, I can see Pacquiao losing this fight if he tries to follow what Roach has been telling him about wanting him to be the young Pacquiao. Roach has Pacquiao stuck on this thing where he needs to be more aggressive, and that’s just not a smart thing to do when you’ve been knocked out cold the way that Pacquiao was.

“Manny will beat Bradley,” Mancini told RingTV. “I thought he beat him the first time but Manny wasn’t sharp in that fight. But I think he’ll beat him easily. He knows now that he has to, it’s probably the thorn in his side. It made no sense. You see, if Bradley was a draw, it makes sense, a big draw for Vegas or for the promoter. Bradley doesn’t draw two people, so it made no sense. I really don’t have a clue why that happened.”

It’s impossible to know why the judges gave Bradley the victory over Pacquiao in their fight in 2012, but I have a feeling they were put off by the fact that Pacquiao was fighting hard for only one minute of every round instead of the full three minutes. Bradley outworked Pacquiao in that fight, and there’s no disputing that. He might not have been as talented as the Filipino star, but he made up for it by working harder than him. The judges might have been impressed by the image of Bradley moving constantly and using an in and out attacking style.

I don’t see anything easy about this fight for Pacquiao. He’s not that good of a fighter to where he can dominate a guy like Bradley with ease. Yes, Pacquiao can definitely beat him, but it’ll be one of those fights where Bradley has his moments and wins some rounds. Pacquiao just needs to make sure that he fights hard and doesn’t get frustrated like he did last time at the movement that Bradley shows him in the fight.

Bradley said before their 2012 bout that Pacquiao have never fought anyone that used movement against him, and that he didn’t have clue one in how to cut off the ring. As it turns out, Bradley was correct because Pacquiao didn’t know how to cut off the ring and he just seemed baffled at the movement that Bradley showed him. It was so different from what he’d faced before, and you’ve got to blame that on Roach because he should have had Pacquiao sparring with guys that could mimic Bradley’s fighting style.



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