++++Manny Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley: Technical/Tactical Breakdown Thread++++

Hmm that's a strange one IMO.

 

Mauricio Herrera views on Pac's sparring partner choice..

Having been in the ring under different circumstances with Bradley and Provodnikov, Herrera explained his reasoning.

“I don’t think it will be that good. Because Bradley’s a mover and I’ve sparred with Bradley before and he has good legs and he’s going to be moving around the ring and he’s hard to hit. I think Provodnikov is there to be hit and it’s not going to be the same as when he fights Bradley. [Bradley] moves around and uses his legs. Provodnikov is just a different fighter than Bradley,” said Herrera, who helped Bradley get ready for his fights with Lamont Peterson and Nate Campbell in 2009.

And it’s the mobility of Bradley that makes Herrera believe he has a real chance to pull off the upset in two months’ time.

“I think Bradley has a good shot,” Herrera continued. “As you’ve seen with Shane Mosley, who was moving around with Pacquiao, and it kind of gave Pacquiao problems. I think that’s something that Bradley’s going to use in that fight.”

 

"Training camp has been well. I have been training for a little while now," Bradley stated. He said that his team has actually had to slow him down so that he doesn't peak too early. "I start sparring next week. I've dropped some weight and I feel really good. Everybody is trying to pull me back because I am super sharp already," he continued.

"Pacquiao got cut and had to get like 22 stiches when (Juan Manuel) Marquez butted him," Bradley told The Boxing Lab. "That wasn't with me. With Shane (Mosley) they clashed heads 5 or 6 times. Manny has a head first style. He leads with the head," Bradley explained.

"I want this fight to be as clean as possible. I want to win clean. I'd rather go out flaming with diginity knowing I gave everything I could give versus going out like a coward,"
Bradley concluded.

 

Scene it, As time gets nearer and i get a chance to sit and watch fights of both men i will post up some stuff. So far mostly just posting the thoughts from the main men on the fight.

Positive vibes…
“Everything’s going real good. We’re ahead of schedule and everything is moving along real, real well. It’s just all positive vibes. Everything around the camp, everything is positive. And a lot of hype. Everybody around the team is very excited, because we see the improvement in Tim. His hand speed, we see everything that he’s been doing. Of course, it’s a good feeling and we feel we’re going to be victorious on June 9th.”

Maintaining Bradley’s progress in camp…
“I have to keep my schedule of workouts and maintain it, as well as the rest of the team. They have to do their job as far as keeping in touch with how he’s doing and what he’s doing. He’s been training already for a month and a half, but for three days a week. This week we started camp officially, every day, since Monday. [Wednesday] was his second day of sparring and he looked really, really good. As a matter of fact, for being the second day, he looked spectacular. That was something that that got everybody got excited. As soon as he finished his sparring, that’s all he did, because the day before he put in his gym work and then he did his conditioning. To me, it was basically focusing on sparring. He wanted more, but I had to cut the work."

Keeping Bradley moving…
“But he’s complying pretty good and he’s not saying ‘No’ to what we decide, especially when I tell him, we’re still quite a ways ahead. I don’t want him to be burned out. Because he started his conditioning training, his running, and all that stuff he started a month ago. When it comes to coming down to the gym and I was like ‘No, no, no. We’re just going to come to the gym three days a week for now’. We have to watch his training and that’s my job. He looked good in sparring and tomorrow we’ll focus more on what happened today. On Saturday, it depends how he’s feeling. I might have him move in the ring with a southpaw, somebody who can keep him busy, keep him moving.”

The sparring partners in camp…
“These kids we’re sparring now, they’re good fighters but I don’t think they’re going to last. We got a couple of them already, they came down and sparred. Real good fighters, real strong kids, but after today, they can probably finish the week and then I got to send them back and get some other sparring partners. Because he’s dialed them in right away and all they do is they just become another opponent. And I don’t want nobody to get hurt. Right now, with Timothy’s hand speed, his movement, and his strength is becoming a big factor. I’m looking for another two or three sparring partners for the following week.”

The difficulty in recruiting future sparring mates…
“Let me tell you one thing; watching Manny Pacquiao, you cannot find sparring similar as Manny. That is very hard. What I am focusing on is just having some young, fresh fighters. I’m not looking for veteran fighters, old fighters. Because old fighters have a slow pace, they’re more experienced type of fighters. I want fighters that are aggressive, fast, and they’re constantly throwing punches. That’s the reason why I have two, three, even four sparring partners in line, because I’m switching them every two rounds. I’m switching them, I’m starting guys fresh, from the beginning. I don’t want to have a kid go four, five rounds by himself, because Tim, after the second round, he will start breaking him. So after the third round, they’re just taking a beating. My strategy right now is to have four fighters on standby and keep throwing them in there after every two rounds.”

Not concerned about Bradley’s weight…
“As far as his weight, that’s not even an issue. He’s walking around right now at 155 [pounds]. He says ‘You know what coach? By the end of May, I want to be at 148. I want to be slim and fast and strong’. I told him ‘You don’t have to. I need you to be at 150, 152’. And he says ‘Coach, for that fight I’m going to come in at 145, 146’ and I asked ‘What for? I want you at 147’. He goes ‘Because I want to be solid muscle. Fast, solid muscle’. With his diet and the way he runs, he’s always looking really, really good. The way he’s working out, he’s generated a lot of hand speed. He’s faster, he’s stronger, his movement, everything. We’re putting everything together. We’re putting the whole package together.”

Why you have to take risks against Manny Pacquiao…
“Look, me as a trainer, my plan goes in different stages. Early, middle, and end. And that’s the way it’s going to be. At the same time, it’s not going to be a game of chess. It could be, early in the rounds, early in the fight. Because we have to study the fighter, we can’t just get in there reckless. But it’s going to be a very exciting fight, because Tim wants to win it. I want to win. If you want to win against Manny Pacquiao, you’ve got to take risks. You’ve got to take risks, but smart risks. You can’t just get reckless. At the same time, you can’t just let Manny unload all the time. You have to take risks no matter what. Early in the fight, due to the fact that you have to study your opponent, of course it’s going to be a game of chess early in the fight. But after that, by the middle of the fight, I think it’s going to be a fight.”

 

Scene it, Photo's of the sparring are there as well.

Bradley, an undefeated junior welterweight champion moving up in weight for the Pacquiao fight, showcased all of his talents and nuances during seven lively four-minute rounds of sparring against a trio of partners on Friday afternoon. Putting in work with Bradley on this day was Houston, Texas native and World Series of Boxing competitor Eric Fowler, junior welterweight prospect Andre Sherard, and former lightweight champion Julio Diaz, who is the younger brother of Bradley’s trainer Joel.



For twenty-eight minutes in the ring, Bradley showed off all of his abilities, from deft movement, sharp counterpunching, a rough infighting ability, and a punishing body attack that had one of his sparring mates taking a knee after a well-placed shot.



Offering up the most resistance to Bradley was Diaz, who switched to southpaw, a trick he has shown throughout his respected professional career, and gave Tim several angles to work off of. It was during these moments that Bradley had to slow his attack down briefly as he had to do a little more thinking, yet he still controlled the action.



All in all the sparring was wildly entertaining and revealed just how primed Bradley is getting with the Pacquiao fight still six weeks away.