Joel Diaz & Timothy Bradley: Dynamics of The Partnership

Bradley for me comes from the Hopkins mould in that he hasn't got a particularly special talent in anything we can see or really gauge. He doesn't look particularly big, strong, fast, powerful etc He does however have a very good command of all the boxing techniques and tends to employ them reasonably well hence his record looking like he does.

What is stopping him from reaching the top is a higher boxing IQ but this can come from different things. For some it is natural, for some it is coaching, hard sparring or sadly one or two losses. His last two fights have been close and controversial. He is human so will he a) recognise flaws his in his approach and gameplan or b) be an egotisitical boxer thinking he is the **** with an undefeated record.

Bradley generally is stronger than his opponents and tends to have a little more desire in enforcing his will on them. At the highest level and in bad style matchups, this can sometimes be your undoing.

The reality is, no matter how much Floyd and Hopkins give it, when they fight, they fight like they need to, to get the W. Theres a reason Hopkins fights slow, ugly and defensive and thats because his goal is to win on points from the start.

Boxing is more mental than physical. Learning how to throw a jab isn't so difficult but learning or knowing when to throw, how fast to throw it, how hard to throw, how often to throw etc is a whole lot tougher and basically defines winning and losing. Having clarity in the heat of battle is difficult. If Bradley doesn't have that naturally then he needs to listen to his coach who can give him that neutrality during tough times. If he doesn't do that either then he is making life though.

 

Bradley has hit his ceiling.

A fairly well-rounded boxer/inside fighter but not exceptional at either and despite the odd counter overhand right he throws sloppily, hence the lack of dig he generally fails to generate.

A very good fighter, not made of steel but very, very resilient. He'll still get results, but I don't expect him to get much better. No problem with that, he's class.

Funnily enough I think Virgil Hunter is a far better fit for Bradley than Khan. Armed with yet another sloppy punching product of the last amateur school, Hunter would at least teach Timmy to be smarter.

It's not just that he's faced too awkward and powerful offensive monsters in his last two fights, as SPB pointed out he looked lethargic against shot and stoned Casamayor.

Way he's looked you'd expect Bradley Vs Aydin to be a fun fight. You wouldn't have said that based on his showings against Peterson, Holt, Witter, even his first fight at welter against Abregu.

 

Hopkins was more refined as an offensive fighter in his early days than Bradley is as a Jack-of-all-trades now. Let alone when Hopkins ended up fleshing out his skillset to his ring general days as unified champ', to his spoiler-boxer mode now.

To be a master of nothing at the top level you gotta' be seriously refined, i.e Azumah Nelson, Mike McCallum.

Bradley, much as I've always championed him, doesn't have that X-factor about the way he blends his skillset.

 

His lack of activity has stunted his development, which I think has now ended and it's just a question of what he can achieve from hereon with what he has.

I think an official defeat to Pacquiao would have helped him.

Marquez I think would thrash him.... even though JMM looked badly faded against Pacquiao (despite winning!) he'd still know too much for Bradders, and would win a decision victory with a sustained mid/late round rally after some early difficulties.

 

Having the X factor doesn't always matter if you can correctly analyse each opponent and know when you can be a bull, need to box, need to spoil, need to be more defensive etc

X was more refined offensively but that only served to make an even bigger change into such a defensive fighter. His RJJ loss was significant and it was pretty much immediately that he began to immitate him with lead right hands after that loss.

Bradley has the tools, he just needs to work out how to use them depending on the task at hand.

 

I believe the fact with that but do you experience Bradley's not enjoying Joel? it's not just Sunday as i described even against Alexander he's got his own ideas on job. I'm always satisfied with Fran. He's a smart guy, He likes you about his competitors and he's designed Bradley so well.