Pacquiao-Bradley makes sense

It appears that the choices for eight-division boxing champion Manny Pacquiao’s next opponent have been narrowed down to American Timothy Bradley Jr., the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight titleholder and former WBO and World Boxing Council (WBC) junior welterweight titlist, and WBO light welterweight king, Ruslan Provodnikov of Russia.

Bradley is no stranger to Filipino fight fans, having beaten Pacquiao on a controversial split decision in Las Vegas on June 9, 2012. The decision sparked such a strong outrage that the WBO President, Francisco Valcarcel took the unprecedented step of convening a five-judge panel to review the video of the fight. The panel unanimously voted in favor of Pacquiao but the group’s verdict did not reverse the decision.

Bradley (31-0, 12 KOs), is the most logical choice for Pacquiao if the latter hopes to meet Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2014 in what could be boxing history’s biggest fight. Pacquiao has the added mission of erasing that stigma of “defeat” in the hands of Bradley even if the whole world agrees that it was highway robbery in broad daylight. Äccording to Kelsey McCarson, Compubox gave Pacquiao a clear advantage in all “meaningful” punch statistics. Pacquiao out landed Bradley 253-159 in total punches and had a 190-108 edge in power shots too.  McCarson says Pacquiao out landed Bradley in 10 of the 12 rounds and was therefore a clear win for Pacquiao.

The Compubox reporter was quoted by McCarson: taking a deeper look at the stats and the judges’ scorecards, Pacquiao had a 22-8 edge in total punches landed in round five and C.J. Ross (who scored it 115- 113 for Bradley) and Duane Ford (who had it 115-113, also for Bradley), gave that round to Bradley. Pacquiao had a 27-11 edge in total punches landed in round seven and all three judges (including Jerry Roth who eventually saw the fight for Pacquiao, 115-113) gave that round to Bradley. McCarson adds that it gets worse. According to RingTV.com’s Lem Satterfield, an informal survey by boxing writer Ryan Macuinana of various media experts had Pacquiao the winner 48-3.

Pacquiao is, in the same breath, the most logical choice for Bradley if the latter wants to convince the world that he deserved the win over Pacquiao in June 2012 and that he can beat Pacquiao convincingly to end all debates and thus deserve a shot at Mayweather.

Since Pacquiao and Bradley crossed paths in June, Pacquiao lost once (by a dreadful sixth round knockout to Juan Manuel Marquez in December 2012) and won convincingly over the one-dimensional Brandon Rios in Macau in November 2013.

Bradley on the other had two fights in 2013 and won both of them. Bradley retained his WBO welterweight title in a unanimous but close win over Pacquiao sparring partner, the rugged and power puncher Provodnikov.

But the main reason for Bradley’s improved pound-for-pound ratings was his win via split decision (116-112, 115- 113 and 113-115) over Marquez. Marquez, 40, claims he won the fight and has been angling for a rematch before he retires. It is this burning desire to avenge that defeat that has prompted Marquez to reject offers for a fifth bout with Pacquiao. Marquez has emphatically said that the series with Pacquiao ended with the fourth encounter – and this makes sense as the fellow wants to fully enjoy that moment that had Pacquiao out cold in the sixth round. No amount of money can put to risk that victorious image which more than makes up for his earlier two close defeats and one draw against Pacquiao. Marquez claims he won all three earlier fights.

The Bradley-Pacquiao rematch will help boxing recover from that travesty in June 2012. We expect a lot of excitement but we also foresee the makings of an unentertaining fight because that is the way Bradley fights – as can be gleaned from his record. He has had only 12 KO’s in 32 fights and makes a living out of aping Mayweather’s defensive, hit-and-run style. This is the same style he employed against Marquez whom we suspect underestimated the American.

Pacquiao will not go for the slam-bang action that he has been known for up to 2010. From that point on, all opponents of Pacquiao went the distance starting with Joshua Clottey all the way up to Rios. The exception of course was December 2012 when he was stopped by Marquez. The Filipino icon will therefore depend on his speed and utilize it to befuddle the equally shifty Bradley.

Pacquiao has probably come to realize that attacking aggressively and absorbing a great number of punches in order to sneak in a knockout punch has the cumulative effect of slowing him down when he has the opportunity to fight Mayweather whose style allowed the Money Man to finish each fight practically unscathed.  After all, a win by points (even by split decision) is the same as a win by knockout or technical knockout. In fact, fighting a la Mayweather or Bradley or even Guillermo Rigondeaux, is considered more educational and technical by boxing purists even if half the stadium is asleep and the other half is unentertained.