By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0 12 KO’s) wants the pillows to be ready by the ringside so that when he scores a knockout tonight, Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) will have a place to rest his head on the canvas at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley feels that he’s going to need a knockout tonight in order to keep from getting shafted by the judges.
“Get the pillows ready by the ringside,” Bradley said to ESPN. “I’ve got to knock him [Pacquiao] out. That’s what we need. I want to knock this dude out. I have no doubt, that’s what I need. That’s what the fans need. I have a knockout with Manny Pacquiao’s name on it. I think anything’s possible, even 12 knockouts. The punch that you don’t see that lands on the right spot and the right time can end your night.”
It’s going to be easier than it normally would for Bradley to get a knockout in this fight because Pacquiao is talking like he’s going to come out looking for a knockout himself in this fight. Pacquiao has a major chip on his shoulder about his previous loss to Bradley, and he’s going to be looking to make people forget all about that loss.
“I’m really the winner of the first one,” the normally humble Pacquiao said. “My feeling now is like when I first started boxing. My plan is to throw a lot of punches and be aggressive in the ring.”
Pacquiao has been talking about being aggressive 24/7, and that gives you a pretty good idea that he’s going to come out on fire and he could wind up getting knocked early by running into a shot in the same way he did in this loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.
“Bradley is in a better place right now than Pacquiao,” said ESPN’s Teddy Atlas. “Pacquiao was knocked out cold. People had to tell him where he was. That is traumatic when it happens. Sometimes you can never recover from that. I’m not sure Pacquiao knows that he’s okay. Bradley, he got the message in the Ruslan Provodnikov fight. He learned what he is and what he isn’t, and he showed that in the Marquez fight. With Pacquiao, everyone is pushing him to be aggressive and push the envelope. That can hurt him, because if he gets a little bit reckless…If he [Bradley] boxes on the outside like Bradley showed us, he can set traps and take what he gets, he can control and win the fight. Bradley will win the fight!”
Atlas leaves no doubts that he feels that Bradley is going to take advantage of Pacquiao’s aggressiveness and box his way to another decision against him tonight. I happen to agree with him. Trainer Freddie Roach has Pacquiao literally whipped into a feeding frenzy like a hungry shark, and he’s not going to be thinking clearly by the time he enters the ring tonight. Pacquiao will be thinking nothing but knockout, and this is going to make this an easy fight for Bradley.
Comments are closed.