By Ian S Palmer
The rubber much between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley will be taking place this Saturday, April 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when they meet for the third time. The 12-round bout can be seen across North America on the HBO pay-per-view network and is for the vacant WBO International Welterweight Title. This fight comes almost exactly two years after they last met in April of 2014. Pacquiao won that contest by a relatively comfortable unanimous decision after Bradley won a highly controversial split decision in their first meeting in June of 2012. Most fans and boxing experts feel Pacquiao has now actually won both fights regardless of what the official judges ruled.
The 37-year-old Pacquiao of General Santos City in the Philippines will climb through the ring ropes with a record of 57-6-2 with 38 Kos while the 32-year-old Bradley of Palm Springs, California has an impressive record of 31-1-1 along with 13 Kos. While both of these fellows have some excellent boxing skills neither of them is now known as a one-punch knockout artist even though Bradley’s power seems to be improving and can’t be underrated by Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach. In fact, Bradley has been working on adding some more pop to his punches since he joined forces with trainer Teddy Atlas.
Pacquiao hasn’t stopped an opponent in more than six years and Bradley has just one Ko since November of 2011, which came in the ninth round against Brandon Rios last November in his most recent outing. This means Bradley has stopped just two opponents in the past eight years. Pacquiao has more natural power than Bradley, but the last man he stopped was Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico when he finished him in the 12th round back in 2009. Pacquiao’s knockout ratio currently stands at 58 per cent while Bradley’s is just 36 per cent.
Even though he’s now hitting a little bit harder, it doesn’t appear that Bradley has the enough dynamite in his fists to do any serious damage to Pacquiao unless he lands the perfect punch, just like Juan Manuel Marquez did when he stopped the Filipino in the sixth round back in December of 2012. Pacquiao has been on the canvas a few times during his career though and needs to keep his focus at all times since his chin could now be somewhat questionable. Bradley has been severely tested in the past by the likes of Ruslan Provodnikov and Marquez and Jessie Vargas had him in deep trouble in the final round of their bout last June and escaped with a unanimous decision.
Bradley has shown in the past that he has amazing recuperative powers when he’s hurt and he’s a hard guy to put down and keep down. Pacquiao, a southpaw, doesn’t really need to change anything from their first two fights with Bradley since he basically dominated the proceedings in both of them for the most part. It’s just that he didn’t get credit for it from the judges in the first meeting. He should have no problem being motivated for fight since it’s his first time in the ring since shoulder surgery and his unanimous decision loss Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May.
Bradley will obviously want to prove that he was a worthy winner the first time around and it wasn’t a fluke victory. The best way to do that will be to win this fight in a convincing manner. But to do that he’ll have to dominate this contest or by hurting or dropping Pacquiao somewhere along the way. If he isn’t able to do that, then his chances of winning two of the three fights in this trilogy will be reduced. Pacquiao is in the twilight of his boxing career at the moment and it’s possible this is his last fight. However, he’s still got enough speed and boxing skills to take care of Bradley via another decision.
Pacquiao is simply the more talented of the two, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. He’ll need to work hard for all 12 rounds and make sure he doesn’t get tagged directly on the chin. Bradley has proven to be quite a durable fighter, but over the first 24 rounds, he hasn’t shown that he can handle Pacquiao’s speed and movement in the ring. Bradley did manage to land some decent counter shots, but not much else. He was more cautious than Pacquiao in the first two fights and to beat him again he needs to initiate the action. Pacquiao needs to make sure this doesn’t happen though as he has to be the one getting off first.
Prediction
This should be a pretty close contest and a lot will depend on who takes the initiative. Bradley sat back the first two times they met and tried to counter Pacquiao, but that didn’t work out too well for him. This fight should produce more action than the first two and fans shouldn’t be surprised by any outcome. However, if Pacquiao’s shoulder has healed 100 per cent and he’s at his best he should be able to emerge victorious once again by a relatively close decision.
