Roach not taking Bradley lightly

MANILA, Philippines - All that talk about Timothy Bradley not deserving to wrest the WBO welterweight championship from Manny Pacquiao in their first meeting two years ago isn’t giving trainer Freddie Roach a false sense of security.

Roach, who celebrated his 54th birthday in General Santos City yesterday, said he’s not taking Bradley lightly in the rematch with Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 12. “Bradley’s the champion, we respect that,” said Roach. “All I can guarantee is Manny will be 100 percent for Bradley, that means he’ll have his power and speed. Manny’s motivated. I predict a great fight.”

Roach arrived in General Santos City last Feb. 24 from Macau where he worked Chinese flyweight Zuo Shiming’s corner in guiding the 32-year-old, two-time Olympic gold medalist’s win over Yokthong Kokietgym by a seventh round knockout. Roach said he’s booked on the Philippine Airlines flight to Los Angeles this Saturday night with Pacquiao and they’ll start training at the Wild Card Gym on Monday.

Roach confirmed that former heavyweight fighter Justin Fortune will rejoin Pacquiao’s team as strength and conditioning coach. Fortune will reconnect with Pacquiao and Roach when they open camp in Los Angeles. Fortune, 48, was Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach for six years until he had a disagreement with Roach in 2007. Alex Ariza then replaced Fortune and for the Brandon Rios fight last year, Gavin McMillan was brought in on an interim basis. Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz said it was the Filipino icon himself who asked for Fortune’s return.

Roach said he has no problems with Fortune coming back. In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles gym, Fortune said he was happy to be back working with Pacquiao and Roach whom he called the best in the business.

Asked what Pacquiao will do different in the rematch, Roach said it will all be about pressure. Pacquiao knows what to do, said Roach, and it’s a matter of execution. Bradley is expected to hit and run. The man called Desert Storm has repeatedly said he won’t engage Pacquiao even if the defending WBO titleholder insisted the Filipino has lost his killer’s instinct and the ability to pull the trigger.

Roach said at this stage, Pacquiao is about 60 percent of what his physical condition should be for the bout. He noted that in terms of boxing shape, Pacquiao still has work to do to reach peak level and one month of hard training in Los Angeles will bring him up to speed. Sparmates are now being lined up for Pacquiao at the Wild Card Gym and the list includes former world champions Kendall Holt and Steve Forbes.

Pacquiao, 35, hopes to regain the WBO title and deal Bradley his first loss ever when they meet next month. If Pacquiao gets the job done, he’ll likely battle Juan Manuel Marquez in their fifth encounter late this year. Pacquiao hasn’t scored a knockout in his last seven fights, two of which he lost to Bradley and Marquez. His last win by stoppage came in 2009 at Cotto’s expense. Bradley is the perfect foil for Pacquiao to prove he hasn’t lost his aggressiveness. Bradley, 30, has a pristine 31-0 record, with 12 KOs, but it’s not as if he’s invulnerable.

Against Holt, Bradley was decked twice but managed to score a unanimous 12-round decision in 2009. Last year, he was nearly stopped by Provodnikov and hung on to win on points. Bradley was floored twice by the Russian although only the 12th round knockdown was counted. Last October, he did his best version of Floyd Mayweather and avoided toe-to-toe combat in decisioning Marquez. After suffering a concussion in the Provodnikov bout, Bradley said he won’t ever take chances in the ring again – he’ll be cautious, conservative and careful. That’s an open invitation for Pacquiao to bulldoze his way through Bradley’s defense. The key is to cut the ring off on Bradley for Pacquiao to pin him down and go for the kill.

Bradley beat Pacquiao via a split 12-round decision that was hardly popular and the WBO formed a panel of five independent judges to review the tape. The panel unanimously agreed that Pacquiao deserved to win. The decision, however, couldn’t be reversed. Bradley said even though he won the WBO crown, it wasn’t the highlight of his career.

“I got the win, I felt I won but the public perception is that I didn’t win,” said Bradley. “The judges had the fight pretty even so there’s nothing to complain about. But it sucked, I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t have a jolly time after the fight. It was a lot of negative attention and no one likes to go through that. I’ll tell you this though, it made me a lot stronger.” Bradley has the chance to prove he’s the superior fighter in their rematch but for sure, Pacquiao won’t let that happen.