By Jeff Aranow: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum expects a real war between his two fighters Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley in their fight in less than a month from now on April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is the third time these guys have faced each other, and Pacquiao has been seen as the winner in both of those fights. Bradley won the first, but it was a questionable win. In the rematch two years later in 2014, Pacquiao got the better of Bradley in beating him by a 12 round decision.
Arum believes that Bradley has improved since his loss in 2014. Arum seems prove in Bradley’s improvement with his 9th round knockout win over Brandon Rios in his last fight in November last year.
Arum thinks that Bradley has gotten a lot better since switching trainers from Joel Diaz to Teddy Atlas. Whether Bradley has improved or not is based on opinion. You can’t really say for sure whether Bradley has gotten better because he’s only had the fight against Rios with Atlas. That was an out of shape Rios that Bradley fought, and definitely not the Rios that was in great shape in January of last year.
“It’s going to be a shootout. They are going to go after each other,” said Arum to the Standard. “it’s going to be a different kinds of Bradley from the one we’ve seen before,” said Arum.
Arum is right about the fight being a shootout. It’s definitely going to be a war between Pacquiao and Bradley for as long as it lasts. Bradley may choose to use movement to keep from getting hit as much. I don’t think the fight is going to be a war like the second bout was in 2014.
The first fight in 2012 definitely wasn’t a war, because Bradley was using a lot of movement to keep from getting hit by Pacquiao. It was effective in saving Bradley from getting hit. However, Bradley abandoned that style for some reason in their rematch and chose to punch with Pacquiao. That was the sole reason why Pacquiao was able to do well in that fight because he didn’t have to chase after Bradley like he did in their first fight.
Arum says Pacquiao’s surgically repaired right shoulder is looking good. He hasn’t seen any sign that Pacquiao is struggling to use his right arm. Of course, some boxing fans might see this as an indication that Pacquiao was never really hurt to begin with.
Fans will believe what they want to believe no matter what you tell them. They would have to be in on the operation to fully believe that Pacquiao really had a torn rotator cuff injury and not just something that he made up as an excuse for his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“The power is much better because he has, since before the Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight last May 2, been struggling with his right hand due to a tear on his right shoulder rotator cuff. Now it’s fully functional and he’s much, much better,” said Arum.
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