BRADLEY IN VEGAS Timothy Bradley is greeted by fans at the MGM Grand main lobby in Las Vegas. REM ZAMORA
LAS VEGAS—Given another crack at Manny Pacquiao, Timothy Bradley feels he has finally found the key to victory.
And it isn’t even about his new trainer or his enhanced power. It’s the element of surprise.
Freddie Roach has said the supposedly “reinvented” Bradley will be quite a puzzle to solve for Pacquiao in their welterweight clash on Saturday at MGM Grand here.
But if he gets hit, he’ll revert to the old Bradley Pacquiao dominated in two fights, including the first bout, which Pacquiao lost by a questioned decision, Roach said.
This time, Roach has a different idea of how Bradley will react if Pacquiao gets the opportunity to nail him.
“He’ll fall down,” the Hall-of-Fame mentor told the Inquirer on Tuesday afternoon after a light training session with Pacquiao at Top Rank gym.
Roach doesn’t believe they’ll see anything new from Bradley on Saturday, even if they took pains to study possible unexpected angles that the American star could throw punches from and how to deal with them.
Keep Manny guessing
While he knows what Pacquiao is capable of doing, Bradley wants to keep his adversary guessing on what he’s going to do in the ring when they tangle for the third and last time on April 9 at MGM Grand Garden Arena here.
“I know his power; I know his speed,” Bradley said after Tuesday’s Grand Arrival at MGM’s main lobby. “But he doesn’t know what I’m going to do. It will be substantially different this time.”
Better fighter
Bradley said chief trainer Teddy Atlas had made him a better fighter without even driving him to exhaustion.
“I feel fresh,” said Bradley. “Honestly and truthfully I don’t even feel like I go through training camp.”
Bradley credited Atlas’ training methods.
“I did the right amount of work,” said Bradley, who told the media on Friday that the farthest distance he’d run during training camp was 5.6 kilometers.
Told about Bradley’s remarks, Roach shrugged. “Yeah, sure,” he said dryly.
Though still over the 147-pound welterweight limit, Bradley said that he’s certain to make it as he doesn’t want to bungle the third chance given him by Paquiao.
“This is my shot,” Bradley said. “If I don’t do it Saturday, I never will.”
Though he was rewarded by bum judges with a split decision on their first meeting on June 9, 2012, Bradley felt more like a loser and was generally treated like one.
He was wheeled into the postfight press conference due to injuries on both ankles he sustained during the fight that saw Pacquiao landing more punches, 253-159, including solid blows, 190-108.
A panel of respected judges formed by the World Boxing Organization to review the bout declared Pacquiao the true winner, though the result wasn’t revised.
Pacquiao exacted vengeance on April 12, 2014, with a clear unanimous decision over Bradley, who tore a muscle in his right calf. Again Pacquiao was more accurate, landing 198, including 148 power punches, to Bradley’s 141.
Surprise call
Just when Bradley thought he’d blew his chance against Pacquiao, the surprise call came.
“I figured we were through with each other. But when they called and said they wanted to fight, I said, ‘Sure, let’s do it one more time.’”
Bradley attributed his poor performance in the rematch to a poor game plan he and former trainer Joel Diaz hatched.
“It was flawed,” he said. “I went in there thinking I had to knock him out instead of outboxing him like I did in the first fight. We figured the judges weren’t going to give us a break after what happened the first time.”
“But looking back on it, that was the wrong thing to do,” he said.
Using Juan Manuel Marquez’s one-punch knockout of Pacquiao in 2012 as blueprint, Bradley did try to knock Pacquiao out, sneaking in an overhand right in the fourth round.
But Pacquiao shook off the punch and went on to dominate Bradley.
With Atlas by his side, Bradley now hopes to outsmart Pacquiao.
Reinvention
Bradley has stuck to the narrative of his reinvention by Atlas in all of his prefight public appearances, adding that the fact that Atlas had been an analyst on television gives his corner a fresh take on Pacquiao,
But Roach said he’s never really been impressed by Atlas.
“I mean, who has he trained?” Roach said. “Michael Moorer and that’s it. Bradley’s a great kid and he’s talented but he isn’t going to get anything new from Atlas.”
Known for pep talks
Roach said Atlas was known for great pep talks and little else.
“What would you rather have? Someone who can say the right things to a fighter or someone who can do the right things for a fighter?”
While he made no predictions about knocking out Bradley, Roach said he was trying to get Pacquiao to go for a victory worth remembering, especially since the Filipino ring icon has hinted that this could be his final bout.
“I told Manny that if this is his last, if he’s going out, he should go out with a bang,” Roach said.