By Vitali Shaposhnikov: This past Saturday, June 16, Timothy Bradley was greeted by many of his fans at the Cathedral City Civic Center. There, Bradley got to communicate with the crowd, and honored by being given the key to the city. Wearing a t-shirt with the writing: “Haters are my motivators” Bradley posed for photos and signed autographs. (http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120617/SPORTS03/206170326/Boxer-Timothy-Bradley-gets-hero-s-welcome).
This was a very welcoming reception for team Bradley, as they were surrounded only by the fans of the new champion.
“Forget all the doubters and haters. I know there’s a lot of Pacquiao fans, but it doesn’t matter because I brought the belt back to Cathedral City. We’re 29-0, so keep hating,” proclaimed Bradley to his loyal followers. Proud and confident, Bradley is starting to act just like any dominant champion probably would.
When discussing his future, Bradley admitted that Pacquiao is still the biggest name in boxing, thus he is the one who gets to choose his next opponent. Bradley also predicted that their rematch is highly unlikely, because Pacquiao will probably fight Juan Manuel Marquez in November of hits year.
“And I think (Marquez) will beat him. But I was the first one in seven years to beat him,” added Bradley.
There you have it, Bradley is confident that this time, the fourth time, Marquez will come out victorious. In a way, this makes sense. Pacquiao lost his title, thus he may suffer some confidence loss. And maybe, just maybe, since he will no longer be the defending champion, the judges will not give him the benefit of the doubt, and award the victory to Marquez if the fight is extremely close.
On the other hand, Pacquiao, despite looking a little bit sloppier than usual, still had the high volume output with a fairly high connecting percentage. Marquez and Pacquiao will always fight the same way, simply because this is how they got to where they are. As the saying goes, don’t fix something that is not broken. Knowing that, if they collide again we can expect a very similar result to the other three.
The fight would have the same pace, and the outcome will be controversial, in all probability in Pacquiao’s favor. To win, Marquez would have to either dominate most rounds, which is very hard to do against a volume puncher like Pacquiao, or send Pacquiao to the canvas, which in reality has zero likelihood of happening. If Marquez can effectively counter-punch for the entirety of the fight, he should be able to win a split decision.
Of all the challengers out there, I believe Marquez and Mayweather Jr. are the only two that could decisively beat Pacquiao. Bradley won, but it was far from being a solid victory, and ended up being a controversial decision with the majority of fans claiming robbery. In a way, Bradley probably doesn’t care much about what happens in November, because whoever wins would perhaps face Bradley in early 2013.