Bernstein: Atlas No Better Than Diaz, Bradley Looked The Same

By Edward Chaykovsky

The stage is set for the trilogy bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley, which takes place on April 9th from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Bradley won a controversial twelve round split decision when they met in 2012. Pacquiao won the 2014 rematch with a twelve round unanimous decision.

The big selling point with the trilogy is Bradley bringing a new trainer to the table. After having Joel Diaz in his corner for pretty much his entire career, Bradley and his former coach parted ways last September. That led to Bradley's hire of Atlas, who at the time was pretty much retired from actively training fighters.

Showtime Boxing analyst Al Bernstein is not sold on the addition of Atlas. He doesn't believe will make any difference in the outcome of the fight.

"Teddy Atlas is no better a trainer than Joel Diaz. He’s no different, he’s no better, he doesn’t bring anything to the dance that Tim Bradley hasn’t had access to before. As far as Tim Bradley is concerned, they preached him not being as reckless and using his boxing skills before," Bernstein told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

"Tim’s not the most talented guy but he’s in great shape and he’s competitive, he knows how to fight, and he’s been taught how to fight. Joel Diaz wasn’t sitting on his hands for all those years. I’m not saying a fighter doesn’t have the right to change trainers, he does, but there’s not any magic wand. Teddy Atlas hasn’t had a magic wand in the past and he doesn’t have one now. I’m not saying he’s not a decent trainer but there’s no special thing that’s gonna happen because he’s in the corner."

Bob Arum of Top Rank, who promotes both Bradley and Pacquiao, says 'Desert Storm' looked like a new fighter with Atlas by his side last November, when the Bradley/Atlas combo made it's debut against Brandon Rios. Bradley dominated the action and knocked Rios out.

While the win was good, Bernstein felt Bradley looked more or less the same - and appeared overly impressive based on the type of opponent he was facing. Also, after the bout Rios admitted to being very overweight coming into camp and spent most of his training time cutting the pounds.

"Bradley’s performance in his last fight was any different than the Tim Bradley we’ve see before. There were all the good things and there was still some of the recklessness. It was who he fought, it wasn’t that he fought any differently, I don’t think there was one iota of difference. But that’s a good selling point for this fight, and I guess it will be an interesting fight, it will be a competitive fight," Bernstein said.