By Miguel Rivera

Veteran trainer Teddy Atlas has already studied the footage from Timothy Bradley's two previous meetings with eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao.

Atlas, who was retired from training fighters for several years, took over Bradley's corner in September. Bradley split with the man who trained him for his entire career, Joel Diaz. Bradley had his first fight under Atlas in November, when he stopped Brandon Rios in the ninth round.

"I already looked at [the first two fights]. I don't believe in waiting," Atlas said to ESPN Deportes. "When this fight was first discussed, I looked at it and I see what I should see and I see why Pacquiao was able to be effective and why Tim was able to be effective at the times when he was effective."

Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), who turned 37 last month, has been inactive since losing a twelve round decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May. He suffered a right shoulder injury during the fight and underwent surgery.

Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) holds a very controversial split decision win over Pacquiao in June 2012. Pacquiao won the rematch in April 2014 with a twelve round unanimous decision. Other than the two judges, almost everyone saw him as the clear winner of the first fight and there was no dispute over the outcome of the second.  

Even with the layoff and the long rehab of his shoulder injury, Atlas expects a very tough task in putting together the right game plan to beat Pacquiao.

"Anyone who has watched me on ESPN for nearly 20 years knows I'm not one to throw out superlatives unless I believe them, but Pacquiao is one of the best fighters of the last decade," Atlas said. "It'll be a tough challenge, but we'll make sure we're ready for [it]. We will respect the challenge Pacquiao presents. We will do what we're supposed to do and be 100 percent prepared. It will be a difficult fight."