By Chris Williams: Tim Bradley feels that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s best days are behind him, and his poor performances in his last three fights are clear evidence of a fighter on the downhill slope of his career.

Bradley is ready to pick off the old lion on Saturday night in their HBO pay-per-view bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bradley told the Los Angeles Times “He’s [Pacquiao] worn out. I can see it in his eyes, the wrinkles. This boy’s not ready for me.”

So true. Pacquiao now is looking like an old lion with bags under his eyes, wrinkles and old saggy skin. I frankly surprised when his promoter Bob Arum was bragging about how fresh-faced Pacquiao was looking now that’s found religion and slowed down his fast paced lifestyle. I had to take a second look at Pacquiao’s pictures to see what Arum was talking about. However, as far as I can tell, Pacquiao looks even older than he did for his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez last Novemer, a fight in which Pacquiao is incredibly lucky to have won. Pacquiao just looks old to me, and when a fighter looks old they often are old.

On Saturday night, Bradley is going to be bringing some new blood to the welterweight division by knocking Pacquiao off his perch that he’s held since winning the WBO catchweight title from Miguel Cotto in 2009. I’m still surprised that Pacquiao was able to win a title at a catchweight, because that seems so wrong. Can you imagine a power hitter having the left field fence brought in 20-30 feet because he wasn’t comfortable about his size. That wouldn’t fly in baseball. Or imagine a short basketball player being given a handicap by having a step latter near the basket so that he could slam dunk the ball. Catchweight fights should be for exhibition only.

Bradley is a 5-1 underdog for this fight, but that doesn’t matter because there are so few boxing experts that really understand the sport. Believe me, Pacquiao is ready to go.