(Photo credit: Top Rank/Chris Farina) By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Robert Garcia doesn’t think that new trainer Teddy Atlas will be able to make much of an impact to the style of WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) in the six weeks that he’ll have trained him by the time Bradley faces Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) on HBO Championship Boxing on November 7th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Garcia expects Bradley to still be pretty much the same fighter that he’s always been because he’s 32-years-old now and he’s already a complete fighter. Bradley only gives you two looks; He’s either moving around on the outside with the hit and style he used in his first fight against Manny Pacquiao or he comes right at you looking to slug it out. Garcia will have Rios ready for both of Bradley’s only two styles.
“Timothy Bradley is Timothy Bradley with or without Teddy Atlas,” Garcia said to Fighthype. “The bottom line is I don’t think Teddy Atlas is going to make a big difference in six weeks. It’ll be the same Timothy Bradley. It doesn’t make a difference for us.”
Garcia is right. Adding Atlas to Bradley’s team isn’t going to do much. It’s perhaps more in Bradley’s head than anything. He thinks it will help him become a rejuvenated fighter to improve him, but the reality is Atlas will be no different than Joel Diaz, Bradley’s previous trainer. Bradley will either slug or use the same style he used against Juan Manuel Marquez two years ago in moving around the ring all night.
Atlas will make sure that whatever game plan that he has for Bradley, he’ll have him stick with it. If one thing isn’t working, Atlas will have Bradley try and switch things up. Where it could be a disaster for Bradley is if Rios is able to deal with either game plan that he has on November 7th, which is very possible. Rios is good at cutting off the ring nowadays, so Bradley probably won’t be able to run from him all night long like he did against Marquez. If Bradley tries to slug it out, Rios will catch him with a big shot a lot earlier in the fight than Jessie Vargas did last June.
“Rios can bring the pressure all night long and we will deal with it,” Bradley said. “We prepared for intense pressure. The only chance Rios has is a lucky punch and that’s not going to happen.”
Bradley might try and clinch all night long if his movement doesn’t work.
I really doubt that Atlas is going to let Bradley fight with Rios because it’s clear that Rios is the much bigger puncher of the two, and Bradley has already shown to have a chin problem. He’s not faced anyone good for quite a while since his loss to Manny Pacquiao last year. Bradley was exposed in that fight and in his subsequent fight against Diego Chaves. Atlas seen those fights obviously and he knows that he can’t let Bradley slug with Rios because he’ll get battered and beaten and likely wind up with a concussion.
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