WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs) will have his hands full on June 9th, when he steps in the ring with unbeaten WBO junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
The fight is less than two weeks away and Bradley appears to be getting more confident with each passing day. He was enraged when trainer Freddie Roach compared him to Ricky Hatton, who Pacquiao snapped away with a vicious knockout in two quick rounds.
“Tune in on June 9 when I destroy Manny Pacquiao,” Bradley told media members at his Tuesday open workout.
“I don’t know if it will be a knockout. I’m not a prediction kind of guy but I know at the end of the fight I will have my hand raised. I am going to be the winner, plain and simple (laughing). I am going to have my hand raised.”
Bradley won’t repeat a mistake that he made in the past, when he came out too fast against Kendall Holt and got dropped very hard in the first round. Bradley wants to test the waters in the early rounds and then he plans to pick Pacquiao apart.
“I’ve got to be smart. I’ve never been in the ring with this guy. I have to find out what his best punches are and have to feel him out and get the timing down. I can’t come out too fast. I came out too fast before and the guy made me pay. Go out for a few rounds, read him, and then start picking him apart,” Bradley said.
By Osman Rodriguez