His willingness to “go for the KO” against Manny Pacquiao in their rematch, despite a very low knockout percentage, is generally looked upon as a poor game plan for that fight, considering Bradley’s skill set. Of course, the scoring in Bradley’s win was quite contentious. By then, Bradley was holding on to survive.
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He will never be the people’s choice, even though he is likeable and gallant and clean and amusing and, after all, American. Bradley has made peace with all that. All he can do is keep winning.
While it’s fair to wonder if Rios was simply done, that the 10-month layoff didn’t help, and that is why Rios was knocked out for the first time in his career, it won’t hurt Bradley’s case that he’s rejuvenated.
We have seen Rios hit by tremendous body shots before in his classic fights with Mike Alvarado. I want to get back on top in boxing.
“That’s the next superstar in boxing right there; he already is to me”, Bradley said of the 27-0 Crawford. The animated Atlas has begged Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs, 1 NC) to fight more with his head than his heart.
Rios, folks said came in at 170 pounds for the fight.
That’s probably a good thing in a fight against Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs), who was unusually passive in losing a decision to Pacquiao in Macau in 2013. Rios said later it hurts to walk away, but he will now focus on his family.
As Rios fades, Bradley intensifies.
Bradley has throughout his career employed different tactics to win fights. He got up at the count of nine, but Bradley was on him like peanut butter on bread. Half of those power punches (88) were body shots, including the two that ended the fight. “Take pieces every round and then finish him off”. “You got me with a great punch”, he told Bradley in the ring before they embraced. Bradley was exhausted of paying such a price for victory. Bradley beat down Rios more effectively than anticipated. “No music. Instead of sparring on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I sparred on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday”.
“I didn’t like it when he got hit with that left hook, but on the whole, he did a great job”. The first time I interviewed Bob Arum, in 2004, I asked him if Top Rank could select a prospect on one criterion alone, what that criterion would be. I was amazed, Teddy was amazed.
Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia added, “I support Brandon one hundred percent. I’m hoping for a spectacular knockout victory”, the trainer said.
Rios seems to have lost the fight in training camp, and surprisingly told HBO’s Max Kellerman after the fight that he was retiring from boxing.
“I couldn’t do what I wanted to do”.
Boxing watchers tend to see too much of one side or the other when a fighter looks good and his opponent looks bad. That wasn’t my favorite part of the fight. But that’s the only time it happened, and he did everything else that we talked about’. Bradley had won a controversial decision over Pacquiao and had heard so much negativity from the press and fans that he came into the Provodnikov with a chip on his shoulder.
For Rios, it may be the last opportunity to salvage a once promising career that was damaged by a lackluster loss to Manny Pacquiao.
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The camp he ran was like night and day compared the ones Bradley had with Diaz. Bradley had also held a 140-lb title before moving up to more lucrative pastures at 147. Bradley has been wobbled as of late by fighters with lesser power than Rios (Vargas).
