By Ryan Maquiñana

Newly crowned welterweight titleholder Timothy Bradley is still recovering from an injured left foot following his upset victory last month over Manny Pacquiao, according to his trainer Joel Diaz.

“The left foot is OK, but he’s still wearing a boot on it,” Diaz told BoxingScene.com.  “He tore a ligament near the upper part of the foot, so he’s still having a little bit of problems putting pressure on it.”

Diaz then outlined Bradley’s timetable to return.

“The doctor said he’ll be able to put pressure on the foot in around five weeks,” Diaz said.  “He’s not in a wheelchair anymore; he’s on crutches now. Tim’s got one more week and then they’ll take off the boot.”

For the time being, Bradley is enjoying a much-needed breather away from the fight game before he targets his next assignment, whether it’s a rematch with Pacquiao or against someone else.

“Tim went out of town for a couple weeks,” Diaz said.  “He flew to Hawaii with his family, and he’s just enjoying himself right now, because when he goes to training camp, he really dedicates himself to the fullest.

“When he comes back from vacation, we have a meeting with Top Rank to see what the future holds, but for now we haven’t talked about anything.  We’re just rolling with the punches and taking it day by day.”

Although Bradley is coming off the biggest win of his career, Diaz feels the controversy surrounding the decision has taken away from their ability to really relish the moment—especially since some of the criticism has been unfairly levied at the trainer and his fighter.

“A lot of people don’t understand that we’re just doing our job,” Diaz said.  “I do my job, Tim does his job, and at the end of the day, it surprises me that we get blamed for stuff.  It’s hard, but we always just keep our heads up and move on.”

Ryan Maquiñana writes a weekly boxing column for CSNBayArea.com.  He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Ratings Panel for Ring Magazine. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at Norcalboxing.net, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.