By Allan Fox: Joel Diaz, the trainer for WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s), thinks the fighting style of Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) is perfect for Bradley to beat him in their fight on October 12th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be televised by HBO.
Diaz said to ESPN “I think Marquez is made to order for Bradley, because Tim is fast, intelligent and Marquez has some age…it’s a fight where we can reach a bigger goal.”
How Diaz can say that Marquez is the perfect opponent for Bradley after the way that Bradley looked in his last fight against Ruslan Provodnikov last March is beyond me. As bad as Bradley looked in that fight, Diaz should be praying that Bradley can beat Marquez, because this is a very bad style match-up for Bradley.
It’s not a good fight for him. Bradley used to be a pretty fast puncher when he fought at light welterweight, but he’s lost a lot of his hand speed since moving up to 147, and his lack of power is even more of a problem for him now.
Bradley now is mostly a jabber and mover now that fight he fights at 147. He doesn’t have the power or the chin to stand in front of his opponents for 12 rounds, as we saw in his fights against Pacquiao and Manny Pacquiao.
Bradley absolutely has to move for 12 rounds, because if he chooses to fight Marquez like he did Provodnikov, he’s going to get knocked out. Marquez isn’t a welterweight, but he can punch good enough to give Bradley a lot of problems if he stands in front of him.
Bradley needs an impressive win over Marquez to help set up a big money rematch against Pacquiao next year. If Bradley can be seen beating Marquez, it’ll raise Bradley’s status because Pacquiao was recently knocked out by Marquez last December.
It’s kind of a joke though, because Bradley would lose to most of the top welterweights in the division like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner, Kell Brook, Amir Khan and maybe even Devon Alexander at this point. Bradley is not the same fighter he was back in 2011 when he was fighting at 140.
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