By Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s) is incredibly confident about his chances of beating Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) in their upcoming fight next month on October 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Bradley saw Marquez’s recent knockout win over Manny Pacquiao, and he doesn’t believe that he’ll be able to do the same thing against him in their fight.
Bradley may have been badly hurt several times in his last fight against Ruslan Provodnikov, but he doesn’t think Marquez will be able to put him in the same condition because he’s not going to let him.
Bradley is going to keep Marquez at the end of his punches and not let him land his powerful left hook and right hand that has been his best weapons during his career.
Bradley said “You [Marquez] can’t knock me out…If I had looked impressive in that fight [Provodnikov] and didn’t take that beating, I don’t think I’d be fighting Marquez right now. After the Ruslan fight, they were okay with fighting me because they’re like, ‘He’s damaged goods.’ He talks like I’m vulnerable…Bring it on…Whether you like it or not, I’m destined for greatness.”
Marquez looked like he was ready to be knocked out in his last fight against Pacquiao last December. Marquez’s nose damaged in the 5th round, he was bleeding, and Pacquiao was hitting him at will.
That fight could have easily gone the other way had Pacquiao not rushed forward to land something in the last seconds of the 6th round.
If we learned something from Marquez’s last fight it’s that he’s lost a lot of hand speed, and he doesn’t throw as many punches as he used to.
It’s unclear whether that is because of his age of because of all the muscle that he put on for that fight. But it doesn’t matter why Marquez slowed down all of a sudden, because if he’s not able to fight hard for 3 minutes of every round against Bradley on October 12th, then it’ll be Bradley that takes Marquez’s scalp.
It’ll be a good name to add to Bradley’s collection, and he’ll still get a lot of credit despite Marquez’s advanced age. You have to give Bradley credit if he beats Marquez because he stopped Pacquiao in his last fight.
If Marquez loses this fight it won’t be due to him being old. It’ll be from him getting out-boxed by a better fighter. It’s as simple as that.
Marquez has fought Pacquiao twice in the last 2 years, and he’s taken a lot of punishment in those fights. I think the wear and tear from those fights might leave him vulnerable for Bradley. You see the loss of speed and the decrease in the work rate, and it immediately comes to mind that Marquez might have been depleted from the Pacquiao fights.
I would expect the same thing from Pacquiao, because he took a lot of hard head shots in both of the last two Marquez fights, and he was knocked out unconscious last December by him.
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