Former 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) doesn’t plan on using any kind of secret plan in how to beat WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) and win back his strap next month in their rematch on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao just plans on throwing a ton of punches, and force Bradley into either matching him punch for punch or go into a defensive shell for 12 rounds. Bradley probably won’t be able to move for 12 rounds, so he’s going to have to either punch with Pacquiao or cover up the best he can.
“Our main focus is to put more discipline into it and to throw a lot of punches,” Pacquiao said during today’s press conference. “If the knockout comes, then it comes. I just want to prove that I still have the hunger and the killer instinct.”
It’s unclear if it’ll help Bradley to know what Pacquiao’s fight plan is for their rematch, because he doesn’t really have a lot of options either way. He pretty much already knows what Pacquiao will be doing in the rematch, and the only question is will Bradley be able to stand and fight or not. If he can’t, then he’s going to need to do a lot of movement in order to survive.
Pacquiao no doubt has studied Bradley’s performance against Ruslan Provodnikov last year, and saw that even when Bradley was on the move, he was still getting trapped by Provodnikov and forced into exchanges. Bradley took a beating in those exchanges and ended up suffering a concussion. Bradley says that he choose to mix it up with Provodnikov on purpose to prove a point, but I don’t buy that excuse.
Bradley did that in the 1st round and was immediately hurt by Provodnikov. But after the 1st round, Bradley stayed on the move for the most part, and yet Provodnikov was still able to cut off the ring on him to make him fight.
If Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has had a lot of time to absorb Bradley’s fight with Provodnikov, as well as his recent one against Juan Manuel Marquez, and he obviously has designed a fight plan that will entail Pacquiao forcing Bradley to slug with him. The thing is Bradley won’t last long if he has to go toe-to-toe with Pacquiao. I suspect we’re going to see a knockout at some point in this fight with Bradley getting stopped.
