By Gerardo Granados: Last Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas, USA, the WBO welterweight belt holder Tim Bradley outclassed and defeated Brandon Rios by TKO9. Although I called the fight right for Bradley, I bet on him to stop Rios on the 11 round so I ended up losing a few notes but still feel fortunate to have seen Tim performance, I know he defeated a brave fighter and not a slick welterweight boxer puncher but still this was a different Bradley for me.
The fight that convinced me Tim had a storm inside of him was his epic battle versus Ruslan Provodnikov, before that bout he showed determination and huger but the Siberian Rocky was his baptize of fire.
I know that styles makes fights but I really liked what trainer Teddy Atlas did with Tim Bradley fighter mentality, you could see in Bradley eyes something different that night. I am not referring to his physical preparation because we all know his work ethics. No, it was like witnessing how the desert storm increased inside of him without necessarily been defensively reckless; although he did got hit clean a couple of times by the slow and predictable attack from Rios.
The way Atlas motivated him in the corner was simply great, always demanding of him more and more. Whilst giving good advice Atlas kept Bradley on the edge of his motivation and by the end of the fight Bradley was still intense.
On the other corner you could hear how desperate trainer Robert Garcia was, trying to make Brandon Rios to throw more punches and to pick up the phase; but his tone of voice was one of desperation than motivation.
Perhaps an old dog can’t learn new tricks but maybe that same dog can find a new motivation. Bradley reminds me of old time fighters who were disciplined and who also would perform better under a strict savvy trainer.
The punch stats were the reflection of the dominating performance from Bradley who was able to do what Manny Pacquiao wasn’t. I liked how now Bradley aimed for the body because in the past to me he didn’t punish that area as he should.
I believe what frustrated Brandon Rios the most wasn’t that he was not able to corner Bradley but instead that Tim edged him on intensity so bad that it was the reason for him to announce his retirement.
Now Bradley must be in the eye of many fight fans and I presume that I am not alone waiting to see him back in the ring soon. For me he is a great test for Terence Crawford or Adrien Broner at welter and also can bring in the numbers against any other welter belt holder WBA Keith Thurman or IBF Kell Brook.
Maybe it is too soon to tell if Atlas will significantly improve Bradley boxing skills but I am certain that so far he is a different fighter from the one that fought against Diego Chavez and Jessie Vargas. Perhaps on his next bout we will be able to measure how much can Atlas increase Bradley´s storm, I think he will get even better but what about you, do you agree?
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