Roach hopes Bradley will slug it out with Pacman

MANILA, Philippines - The last thing Freddie Roach wants to see is Timothy Bradley getting on his bicycle during his rematch with Manny Pacquiao on April 12.

Roach wants Pacquiao to look good in this fight, and that would hardly be possible if Bradley decides to run all night.

That’s more likely to happen given Bradley’s style and low knockout ratio – stopping just 12 opponents in 32 fights – and Roach says they’ll come prepared for that.

“If Bradley’s gonna fight like he did in his last fight, and he’s gonna run and move a lot, we have to cut the ring off and attack him a little bit more, yes,” the bespectacled trainer explained in an article by Michael Woods of thesweetscience.com.

 â€œIf Manny attacks him and fights three minutes of every round like he did against Brandon Rios and throws combinations, I think we have great success with that,” he added.

Pacquiao has vowed to revert to his old fiery self, against Bradley who was lucky to escape with a decision the first time they met two years ago. Both camps want a conclusive result this time around, with Bradley’s trainer Joel Diaz even urging his ward to go for a stoppage.

To try forcing a stoppage against Pacquiao would mean engaging him, something that would leave the opponent vulnerable. In Bradley’s case, it almost led to a knockout loss to Ruslan Provodnikov in March last year, wherein he hit the deck in the 12th round but went on to survive and win a decision.

Roach then pointed out that Pacquaio is different from Provodnikov.

“He’s [Bradley] a good boxer but sometimes he tends to get into a fight, and that’s when he mistakes, because he likes to exchange sometimes. When he exchanges with Manny, Manny is the better, faster puncher, and the better puncher of the two, and like Ruslan was, and he’ll be able to hurt him,” he said.

The multi-titled cornerman hopes Bradley presses the action. Otherwise, it could be a boring fight.

“But if he runs the whole night long, then he’ll make it a little bit of a boring fight. But it’s hard to a win backing up so there will be points where he’ll have to exchange with us, and we’re going to have the advantage, I think,” he further explained.

“I hope he does press, because that’ll bring the best out of Manny,” Roach ended.