The forecasts and predictions continue to pour in for the upcoming fight between Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr. who will meet for the third time on Apr. 9 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
Though there are some who are still criticizing the match, all the bickering seems to be futile at this point with the card expected to go on as scheduled.
Recently, two trainers had already said their piece – Jeff Mayweather and Joel Diaz, the former handler of Bradley Jr.
Jeff Mayweather is, of course, the uncle of retired and undefeated American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. For his part, he believes that even with a new trainer in Teddy Atlas, the best Bradley can do is improve on his previous performances.
“I don’t think that Teddy Atlas — or anyone else — can help him win. He may do a little better but at the end of the day, Tim’s been in a lot of wars since the last time they fought. He may have more wear and tear on him than Pacquiao does," says Mayweather via On The Ropes Boxing Radio just recently.
On the other end, Diaz believes the choice to fight Bradley over the rest stems from the fact that Pacquiao’s belief that Bradley cannot hurt him.
“The reason why Pacquiao is choosing him is because (Bradley) can’t hurt him,” said Diaz to The Desert Sun.
Just recently, Pacquiao's former trainer (Rick Stratheli) came out in the open to say his piece. For him, the tiff is likely to end in a draw.
“Manny will have to work for twelve rounds and the long layoff plus all the political stuff in running for a Senate seat is bound to make it difficult,” says Stratheli via The Standard.
How about Bradley? Is he not impressed with “Desert Storm” who has shown remarkable improvement against Brandon Rios back in November?
Stratheli points out that while many are looking at Bradley so much at that fight, many failed to consider the fact that Rios was not the same fighter who trained hard against Pacquiao.
He believes that Bradley is likely to resort to the box to be effective. But one thing he lacks, per Stratheli, is that “Desert Storm” lacks the punch to do damage inside.
Weighing out the two factors – Pacquiao’s age and Bradley’s possible lack of power – a draw seems to make sense. But if that happens, expect a lot of people to have a field day criticizing Pacquiao for his decision which may eventually hurt him rather than draw admiration.