After what amounted to a controversial decision win over pound-for-pound pugilist Manny Pacquiao two fights back, Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) in seeking respect would with speed, athleticism, and an unwavering game plan at Las Vegas, Nevada’s Thomas & Mack Center perhaps gain just that.Outdoing Hall of Fame bound Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) fresh off his knockout victory over one and the same Manny Pacquiao, Timothy would garner a split decision win over the Mexican to retain his WBO welterweight title, as well as keep his undefeated record intact.
The final tallies would read 116-112 and 115-113 for Bradley, with the Glenn Feldman card surprisingly in favor of Marquez at 115-112.
Surprising from the point of view that Marquez wouldn’t land much at all, nor anything significant, finding Timothy a hard target who executed to near perfection a game plan that would entail maintaining distance to pick and choose spots to work in.
For the most part dictating the action with a jab that often found it’s target, Tim would in many an instance beat Marquez to the punch during the exchanges, to with excellent head movement emerge unscathed so that he would clearly outpoint Juan Manuel in the majority of rounds.
Throw in the fact that “Desert Storm” would at times resemble one James Toney by beautifully rolling the right hand of Marquez to successfully counter back, and that seemed to add icing on the cake.
Most crucial however, the Palm Springs native would avoid an extensive firefight that highly favored the counter-punching Marquez, who, in seeking his fifth world title in as many divisions was kept off balance throughout.
Perhaps contributing to what appeared a lack of urgency though, “Dinamita” was clearly misled by his corner who informed him he was ahead during the fight. This same mentality would in the end contribute to Marquez disputing the scorecards.
All in all an excellent performance by Bradley who mainly on cruise control now looks to replace Marquez as the third best fighter in the world while at the same time Tim no doubt feels he’s qualified to enter the Floyd Mayweather sweepstakes.
Salido Batters Cruz into submission
Perhaps southpaw Puerto Rican Olympian Orlando Cruz (20-3-1, 10 KO’s) being the first openly Gay fighter shouldn’t have been such a focal point as opposed to an undeserving Cruz contesting recently defeated Mexican Orlando “Siri” Salido (40-12-2, 28 KO’s) for the vacant WBO featherweight title.
I mean Cruz hadn’t defeated anyone of note, while former WBO featherweight champion Orlando Saldio, although upended by Mikey Garcia most recently to separate him from the very title in question, would reclaim that which was vacant due to Garcia not making weight during their encounter.
And in this fight, the Puerto Rican-Mexican rivalry renewed with a twist would see “Siri” from the opening bell press the attack, going to the body to over time slow Cruz down who taking an eventual battering, would hang in as long as he could.
The end would come via a sweeping right hook followed by a left uppercut that would finish the game but outgunned Cruz at 1:05 of round 7.
http://youtu.be/WaKeTflioiQ
