Roach: Tim Bradley and Brandon Rios are at the same level

By Boxing News - 04/12/2014 - Comments

roach67By Allan Fox: Trainer Freddie Roach isn’t impressed with the talent and the overall skills of WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s), and he sees Manny Pacquiao (55-5, 38 KO’s) being able to take him out on Saturday night by jumping on him early to demolish him in front of the large Las Vegas, Nevada crowd. Roach thinks that Bradley is no better than Pacquiao’s last opponent Brandon Rios, who Pacquiao turned into a human punching bag in beating last November in one of his easier wins of his career.

“I think Rios and Bradley are pretty much at the same level,” Roach told Max Kellerman of HBO. I don’t think he’s much better than him. I think Manny should devastate him in the same way [Ruslan Provodnikov did], yes.”

I’m not sure if Roach is being serious or not with his comparison of Bradley to Rios, because they’re so different. Rios is a slow fighter who prides himself in his ability to take head shots and return fire, while Bradley is someone who uses movement to avoid taking shots, and he’s more of a counter puncher. If Roach can’t see that Bradley is a lot better than Rios then that reflects on Roach, as he should be able to see with his own two eyes that Bradley is a very good fighter, and far superior to Rios.

Roach needs to be able to stay detached more in analyzing Pacquiao’s opponents, because he’s not going to do him any good if he’s undervaluing the skills that guys like Bradley brings to the table. Roach should have realized by now that Bradley was good enough to beat Pacquiao in 2012, and that alone makes himself someone that he should take serious as being a very good fighter with skills.

If Roach goes out there on Saturday night and tells Pacquiao use the same game plan that he did in beating Rios, then it’s quite possible that we’ll see Pacquiao lose this fight unless he can think for himself and come up with his own ideas inside the squared circle. Pacquiao might need to think for himself if Roach has him doing something that doesn’t make sense.

Pacquiao needs to take Bradley very seriously, because with the extra muscles he put on for this fight with his training, it’s quite possible that he now has enough power to score a knockout if Pacquiao gets sloppy inside the ring.



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