On this week’s edition of “The Pugilist KOrner”, expert trainer and former Lightweight contender Joel Diaz gave the listeners his thoughts on Tim Bradley’s boxing future in 2014.
Although most boxing pundits have stated that a fight with the winner of this weekend’s Junior Welterweight Championship contest in Denver, Colorado, between Mike Alvarado and Ruslan Provodnikov would be the most appropriate return bout for “Desert Storm”, the talented young fight trainer insists that the WBO Welterweight Champion has unfinished business with Manny Pacquiao.
“There is a wound that absolutely will not heal in my life until we make things clear and set things straight with Manny Pacquiao,” states expert trainer Joel Diaz. “I would love to get a rematch with Manny Pacquiao for the simple reason that we need to clear things up in the minds of the fight fans as well.”
Degrading physical attributes due to inevitable aging, is generally the main reason for fighters losing their fights and being forced into retirement. Some believe that it’s the boxing abilities that abandon a fighter first, but in reality, technical ability is more than just muscle memory, over time it gets hardwired into one’s brain and forgetting it requires a very long period of inactivity.
Mario H. (Tampa, FL): There was a lot of discussion in the aftermath of Bradley/Marquez about Marquez being “robbed again”. How did you score the fight? And how did you rate the performance of both men?
Timothy Bradley was not the only fighter to receive a boost from his victory of the great Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday night. In an indirect, but very real way, Manny Pacquiao also benefited from the outcome of the fight.
The narrative for Timothy Bradley’s career before last night was that of negativity and spoiled success. Bradley has been a fighter more criticized than praised on his rise to prominence and his time in the limelight has been one of turmoil. Boxing fans and pundits alike have had a slow transition to giving credit to Bradley after his ugly technical decision win over Devon Alexander in 2011 and his controversial decision over pound for pound boxing icon Manny Pacquiao. 
HBO PPV viewers and the live crowd at the MGM Grand saw Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley out-box and out-fox Juan Manuel “Diaminta” Marquez twelve championship rounds for the welterweight championship. Marquez was forced into a fight where he needed to be the aggressor. As most fans know, Marquez’ strong suit is counter punching. He is at his best when he can draw his opponents into traps. He welcomes their aggression, and generally makes them pay for mistakenly thinking they made a good move.
WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) won an incredibly dull 12 round split decision on Saturday night over 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) by the scores of 115-113 Marquez, 116-112, 115-113 Bradley at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. 
World class skill, heart, and grit will be on full display this Saturday night from the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on HBO PPV. Many questions and queries from the boxing public will be answered when these pound for pound level fighters square off. Before we attempt to answer the final question of who will win enough battles to ultimately win the war, let’s take a look at what’s at stake and the doubts causing mass speculation leading into this matchup. 
The Final press conference for the undercard fights on the Marquez-Bradley welterweight showdown took place on Thursday in Las Vegas.