By Edward Chaykovsky
On Wednesday, it was officially announced that Manny Pacquiao would face WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley for a third time on April 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Bradley won a controversial twelve round split decision against Pacquiao in 2012. Pacquiao got revenge in 2014 with a twelve round unanimous decision.
The biggest difference in the third meeting is the head coach in Bradley's corner. Back in September, Bradley parted ways with career trainer Joel Diaz and hired Teddy Atlas, who is best known for his work with several heavyweight champions. The pair made their debut together in November, when Bradley dominated and knocked out an under-trained Brandon Rios.
Diaz had a lot to say about fight, namely that most fans are not clamouring for a third meeting between Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) and Pacquaio (57-6-2, 38 knockouts). Pacquiao has not fought since a May decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Fans were more in tune to see Pacquiao face one of the other names in the running, like Terence Crawford or Amir Khan.
According to Diaz, Pacquiao made his selection based on the safest option among the three. He also feels Bradley is still the same fighter under Atlas.
"The reason why Pacquiao is choosing him is because (Bradley) can't hurt him," said Diaz to The Desert Sun. "If Pacquiao chooses Bradley, he will knock him out this time. People don't want to see that fight again."
"Tim Bradley always comes prepared for a fight. It does't matter who it is, Tim Bradley always prepares really well. If you tell Bradley that he's going to face a guys with 50 losses, and that it's a sure win, he's still going to prepare 100 percent. But I didn't see anything different in Bradley (against Rios). The only thing he was doing (differently) was he was moving side-to-side, side-to-side. At this point in his career, he's already a made fighter. You cannot teach old dogs new tricks, you can just help him improve on what he knows."
