Bradley still feels Mayweather will be #1 pound-for-pound even if he beats Pacquiao a second time

By Boxing News - 01/29/2014 - Comments

bradley77By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley says he still won’t see himself as the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport even if he beats Manny Pacquiao for a second time on April 12th. Bradley says that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will still be recognized as the true #1 pound-for-pound fighter in boxing until he can get Mayweather in the ring and beat him.

That’s not going to happen obviously with Bradley re-signing with Top Rank for another 2 years beyond 2014. Bradley won’t be free of Top Rank until 2017. Mayweather will likely have retired from the sport long before that, so Bradley will never get the opportunity to show that he’s the better fighter than Mayweather.

“Floyd Mayweather is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the game,” Bradley said to Fighthype in response to the question of whether he’ll be perceived as the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the game if he beats #7 pound-for-pound guy Pacquiao in their rematch on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. “I have not yet accomplished what Mayweather has been able to do, so by no means can I say I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter in the game even though I could have a win over Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. The only way that I can say that I’m the best in the world is fighting Mayweather and beating him.”

Bradley ruined his only chance of ever proving that he’s better than Mayweather by him re-signing with Top Rank. Had Bradley left Top Rank, he’d have had a good chance at getting a fight with Mayweather, because he would be one of the leading candidates for a fight with him. But Bradley has basically permanently ruined any chances of him fighting Mayweather by re-upping with Top Rank for another 2 years in addition to all of 2014. In the big scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter though. You can see how slow Bradley is and realize that he would get badly beaten if he were to fight Mayweather. I would have serious doubts that Bradley could even hang with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Robert Guerrero; the two guys that Mayweather recently beat. Canelo would be too big and strong for Bradley, and Guerrero would wear Bradley down.

I have a feeling that Pacquiao is going to remove all doubt about whether Bradley deserves to the the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport by beating him badly on April 12th. The only way Pacquiao doesn’t beat Bradley in the rematch is if he lets Bradley move around the ring and play his hit and run style of fighting like he did in their fight two years ago.

If Pacquiao doesn’t cut off the ring and force Braldey to fight then Pacquiao will probably lost for a second time. But if Pacquiao cuts off the ring on Bradley the same way that Ruslan Provodnikov did in his bout with Bradley last year then it’s going to go badly for Bradley. He’ll take a lot of punishment from Pacquiao, and I can see Bradley getting knocked out unless he resorts to holding on the inside any time Pacquiao gets close to him.



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