By Chris Williams: The last time that WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) fought Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) in 2012, Bradley chose not to wear socks with his shoes. This resulted in Bradley’s foot moving around his shoe from the sweat. He had worked out previously without socks on a hard ring surface in his training gym, but it was a much harder surface than the one that he found in the ring against Pacquiao at the MGM Grand on June 9th in 2012. The ring was real spongy and slow, according to Yahoo Sports.
Bradley wasn’t able to move well on the ring, and his feet kept slipping in his shoes due to him not wearing socks. Eventually, Bradley ended up injuring both feet during the fight from them slipping in his shoe.
“I didn’t have the support I needed because I didn’t wear any socks and the ring was very spongy,” Bradley said to Yahoo Sports. “It was very difficult to sit down [on my punches], and that’s why my feet gave out, because my feet were moving around inside of my shoes.”
You have to wonder whether the slow ring was set up to purposely slow down Bradley, a fighter who is known for his movement, in order to make it easier for Pacquiao to be able to corner Bradley and stop him. You have to remember that Pacquiao was the star in this fight, and Bradley was just some unbeaten ex-light welterweight fighter who had recently been signed by Bob Arum of Top Rank and thrown in the ring with Pacquiao.
Bradley wasn’t a star or even close to being one. He was just a former 140lb champion with a history of being involved in a lot of fights that had head-butts. Was the spongy surface of the ring a way to slow Bradley down enough for Pacquiao to beat him? If so, then it failed because Bradley still was able to move enough to get the win, but at a cost of suffering injuries to both feet.
Bradley won’t make that mistake again of not wearing socks, because it’s quite possible that the canvas will be very slow and spongy again and unless Bradley is able to move quickly, he’s going to be forced to trade with Pacquiao for 12 rounds.
Bradley’s trainer needs to check the canvas ahead of time and determine whether socks are needed or not. If it’s a fast surface, then he won’t need to wear them, because they’re not going to switch out the canvas once the fight card is underway.
I believe Bradley would have beaten Pacquiao a lot easier and without controversy if he had worn socks last time they fought. I’m a little disappointed that his trainer didn’t test out the gym ahead of time so that he could tell Bradley to wear socks. Being a professional he should have known that there would be a possibility that he would be fighting Pacquiao on a slow canvas. I wouldn’t be surprised if the canvas they fight on will be like quicksand on April 12th.
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