Well, that was quick.
It took Floyd Mayweather Jr. years to realize he wanted to take cheap shots at Manny Pacquiao through the media. Good ol’ Timothy Bradley, though, decided to speed up the process and started throwing jabs one week after being officially inked to Top Rank.
While appearing on The Boxing Lab with Boxing Scene, Bob Arum’s newest signing to the Top Rank “family” was asked who he'd rather fight, Pacquiao or Mayweather. Essentially, who he thought he'd have a better chance of beating. Bradley’s response was surprising.
“Pacquiao. I want Manny Pacquiao. I want Manny Pacquiao because I feel stylistically, I think he plays into my game.
“Honestly, I think Floyd would be a harder fight than Manny Pacquiao. I think Floyd would be a way harder fight because Floyd is so defensive and he’s a sharp shooter. And every mistake you make, he’s going to make you pay” said Bradley as he gave an explanation to his answer. Manny Pacquiao, he opens up. Floyd don’t open up man. He opens up when he sees openings, but other than that, he’s defensive all the time. It’s a chess match.”
Bradley is entitled to his opinion, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong.
He wouldn’t have a better chance against Pacquiao than Mayweather precisely because of the former’s knack for going on the offensive. When the Filipino champion goes into attack mode – look out, challenger. Mayweather, meanwhile, has shown himself to be vulnerable to certain well-timed hits despite his defensive nature. In fact, in his last victory against Victor Ortiz, Mayweather was actually starting to take a bit of punishment before the sucker punch that was heard around the world.
That’s not to say Bradley could beat Mayweather either – because he can’t. Bradley isn’t even a top five pound-for-pounder, so the notion that he could challenge any of these guys is ludicrous. But it’s far more nonsensical to suggest that he could beat Pacquiao, who has consistently proven himself as a top-tier pounder-for-pounder over the last three years in an easier fashion than Mayweather.
“I think I’d be able to isolate a lot of things that [Pacquiao] likes to do in the ring” also said Bradley.
Keep in mind, many great fighters have tried to “isolate things that Pacquiao likes to do in the ring,” that’s not exactly a sparkling new strategy. Yet, somehow, all of these guys end up losing. And in some extreme cases, mildly suicidal.
Unfortunately, because of the sheer fact that he’s signed to Arum’s company, Bradley will likely get a shot at Pacquiao after they both fight against their respective stiffs on November 12. When they do eventually meet, of course, Pacquiao will destroy him and this whole discussion will be moot.
At the end of the day, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach undoubtedly had the best reaction to Bradley challenging his guy.
"Bradley is a tough kid," Roach said. "But I guess that if you have to mention Tim Bradley, then I'm like, 'Is that all that we've got? Tim Bradley?'”
You’re not alone, Freddie. You’re definitely not alone.