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Tomorrow, Manny Pacquiao faces off against Timothy ‘Desert Storm’ Bradley for the WBO welterweight belt.
Pacquiao has dominated nearly everyone who he has fought since losing to Erik Morales for the first time back in early 2005, all apart from Juan Manuel Marquez.
Although there are not many comparables between Marquez and Bradley, they offer the same challenge in the fact that Bradley will not just be happy to be there against Pacquiao i.e. Joshua Clottey or Shane Mosley.
Nor is Bradley old, blown up or shrunk down.
Bradley, 28-0-0 with 12 KO’s, feels it is his time to sit on top of the throne and end Pacquiao’s reign as pound for pound king. He has campaigned at Junior Welterweight for the majority of his career, but the step up shouldn’t be too much of an issue for him.
Pacquiao, 54-3-2 with 38 KO’s, as we all know, has campaigned at different weight divisions but he has never really weighed in higher than 145, and the last outing he had, against Marquez, he came in at 143, but surprisingly he looked smaller than Marquez.
Marquez is a different fighter entirely, he is a technician and although he will stand and fight toe to toe with Pacquiao, he does it looking to counter punch, also in my opinion, Marquez has Pacquiao’s number.
Such as Vernon Forrest had Shane Mosley’s, or Omar Salido against Juan Manuel Lopez.
What Bradley brings to the table is something that Pacquiao has not seen in a while, someone who is not going to wait for Pacquiao to throw punches or fight at his own pace; Bradley is a live wire and incredibly fit, strong and durable.
When Bradley has been down, against Kendall Holt, he hit the deck hard. He then got up and brought the fight to Hol, taking the well earned decision after twelve rounds.
He outworked Lamont Peterson and clearly doesn’t struggle with southpaws, i.e. Devon Alexander, and although Bradley doesn’t have particularly heavy hands with a 41% KO ratio, most fighters struggle with his work rate and their inability to hurt him or stop the onslaught.
He really is a handful for any top fighter out there and will come to fight and more importantly, intends to beat Pacquiao.
Pacquiao is equally as tough as Bradley and obviously has other skill sets. He is probably the fastest puncher Bradley has faced; sure, Alexander was fast but is a counter puncher, while Holt can counter punch and he bangs but never has Bradley faced someone who can jump in, do the damage, switch the angle and do more damage.
Pacquiao has miles on the clock now and his last outing was telling. There is word that things were going on behind the scenes but the bottom line is, people will not remember that in the history books, Bradley will not care. Pacquiao will have to show up and if he does, Bradley has never faced anyone like Pacman.
Then there is always the threat of a headclash, as Bradley does lead in with his head. Bradley is not a dirty fighter, but he does jump in, just look at the Nate Campbell fight.
There have been and always will be complaints against Bradley about headclashes and against a southpaw, especially against one that does an equal amount of jumping in, it could be a recipe for disaster.
It is a hard fight to call as Bradley offers new threats to Pacquiao and the question to be asked is – does Pacquiao still have enough to deal with Bradley?
By the same token, Bradley has not faced anyone with the experience, the power and the movement of Pacquiao.
The middle rounds will be telling as Pacman will not cower from Bradley, and he hits harder; Pacquiao takes it by the skin of his teeth and after a war.
