Bradley: This will be the defining moment for my legacy

By Boxing News - 03/28/2016 - Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Soqyw7Vh7U

By Chris Williams: Trainer Teddy Atlas has come up with a great game plan for Timothy Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) for his third fight against Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) in their fight on April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley, 32, says he didn’t really have a great game plan in his first two fights against Pacquiao.

In the first fight, Bradley just went out and winged it doing the best he could by outworking Pacquiao. In the second fight, it didn’t matter whether Bradley had a game plan or not because he suffered a leg injury early in the fight that forced him to fight in a stationary position without being able to move around the ring like he had wanted to.

Pacquiao is going to have a really tough time against the new and improved Bradley for this fight. Bradley’s improvements are coming at a bad time for Pacquiao because he’s coming off of a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. from last May in their ‘Fight of the Century” on HBO and Showtime PPV. Pacquiao suffered a rotator cuff injury before that fight, and he aggravated the injury during the heat of the battle.

YouTube video

Pacquiao had surgery not long after the fight, and he’s been rehabbing the injury for many months. He’ll be taking the Bradley fight without a tune-up to test his shoulder. That obviously a stupid thing to do, but it looks Pacquiao and Top Rank didn’t want to waste money opportunities by taking a tune-up that wouldn’t have brought in many PPV buys.

The thing of it is the Bradley vs. Pacquiao third fight likely won’t bring in a lot of PPV buys either, because the interest in this fight appears to be very, very low. It looks like Pacquiao’s 84-year-old promoter Bob Arum overestimated the amount of interest there would be in this third fight.

“I will step in that ring and follow instructions from my corner that should get me my victory and credit that I deserve,” said Bradley. “The most important thing about this fight that wasn’t there before is my new trainers Teddy presence. Him and I have developed a new strategy and have changed my preparations. Besides this change I think the best wisdom I’ve learned from the 2 previous matches is that I just need to stick to the plan and fight like I know how.”

Honestly, it really isn’t going to take much of a game plan for Bradley to beat Pacquiao. I could put one together with a crayon and a color book. After watching Bradley’s first fight against Pacquiao, and then watching the Mayweather fight against him, it’s only obvious that the game plan that Bradley needs is jabbing, moving and a lot of single shots. He cannot stay in one place for any length of time, and he can’t lay up against the ropes; not that he ever did in the past. The most important thing that Bradley must avoid is standing and trading with Pacquiao.

“I do think that this being a grudge match and having to go through 2 different outcomes in the past this will be a defining moment for myself and my legacy,” said Bradley.

I hope Pacquiao and Bradley aren’t counting on there being a bundle of money coming in from the PPV upside for this fight because I see the fight bringing in a low number of buys.



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