By Edward Chaykovsky
For this coming Saturday night - Teddy Atlas, who now trains former two division world champion Timothy Bradley, has a plan in place which he calls 'The Marquez' - which is a reference to Juan Manuel Marquez.
Bradley will face Manny Pacquiao for a third time on April 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Marquez has faced Pacquiao four times and gave him more problems than any other fighter. They are 2-1-1 in favor of Pacquiao. Some insiders saw Marquez as the winner of their second and third bout. The former four division champion knocked Pacquiao out in six rounds in their fourth meeting in 2012.
Bradley was trained by Joel Diaz for his first two bouts with Pacquiao. He hired Atlas last September and they had their first bout together last November when Bradley knocked out Brandon Rios.
“Listen, Marquez is a great fighter, and I’m not afraid to learn things from everybody,” Atlas said to Desert Sun. “There’s two fighters that have beaten Manny, Marquez and Mayweather, recently. And I think we’d be fools not to take that information and see how it was done.”
Even Bradley's former trainer admits that Marquez found the secret to beat Pacquiao.
“The pattern is there,” Diaz said. “Marquez just timed that. The reason why a lot of people get tired with Manny Pacquiao is because Manny Pacquiao always keeps you on the edge. You don’t know what he’s got because he’s always going in and out.
“But when he’s throwing punches, he lunges in with the jab, to throw his power left. If you time that with a nice right hand, like Marquez did — Marquez practiced and timed that punch — that’s the way to beat Manny Pacquiao.”
