Garcia: Having Atlas Won't Benefit or Change Bradley

By Ryan Burton

On November 7th, former lightweight champion Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24KOs) will face WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (32-1-1, 12KOs) at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Bradley took significant punishment against Ruslan Provodnikov, Manny Pacquiao in their rematch, and Diego Chaves. In his most recent fight he was cruising towards to an unanimous decision victory over Jessie Vargas until getting caught at the end of the 12th round.  The fight was stopped 7 seconds prematurely and Bradley was able to hold on for the victory.

Rios' trainer, Robert Garcia, feels that no matter how great his fighter looks against Bradley - he won't get credit for beating an elite fighter.

"We are training for the best Timothy Bradley. The Timothy Bradley that beat Marquez. We don't want to hear that Bradley has taken too many punches. After Brandon wins or knocks him out that is what I am going to hear.....that Timothy Bradley wasn't there anymore or he was finished. I don't think he will get the credit that he deserves just like the Alvarado fight when Brandon trained his ass off and looked great and they said Alvarado didn't train or was in too much trouble. That wasn't our fault.  Brandon is training the same way for this fight," Garcia told BoxingScene.com.

"Bradley changing trainers won't affect him negatively or benefit him. He has been around a long time and even if his wife trained him now it wouldn't change him. He has been the same fighter for 3-4 fights or more now. Teddy Atlas hasn't trained for a while but he is a great trainer.  I don't think there is much change he can do there. They are going to try to box but he is going to be in there for 12 rounds with Brandon so we will see."

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