By Keith Idec
Timothy Bradley actually likes the fact that he is an underdog again as his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez approaches.
The 40-year-old Marquez is listed as a slight favorite over Bradley, according to Internet sports books, in their Oct. 12 welterweight title fight in Las Vegas.
“I don’t mind being the underdog,” Bradley, 30, said on a conference call Tuesday to promote their HBO Pay-Per-View main event. “I like being the underdog. I like to take people’s money. You know what I’m saying? That’s what inspires me.
“I love to take people’s money. And I’m going to take people’s money again in this fight. And people can doubt me and doubt me and doubt me and doubt me. And that’s OK, but when are they going to get sick and tired of losing their money?”
The unbeaten Bradley (30-0, 12 KOs, 1 NC) will defend his WBO 147-pound championship against Mexico’s Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KOs), who knocked nemesis Manny Pacquiao unconscious with one punch in the sixth round of his last fight Dec. 8 in Las Vegas. Bradley, meanwhile, struggled to win his last bout, a spectacular slugfest against rugged Russian Ruslan Provodnikov (22-2, 15 KOs) on March 16 in Carson, Calif.
“You know what?,” Bradley said. “Everybody is looking at my last fight, everybody’s looking at his last fight and what he’s done in the sport. A lot of people, they still remember what he did when he knocked out Pacquiao. With me, everybody remembers that war with Ruslan Provodnikov. And a lot of people don’t think I’m going to be the same after that fight.
“A lot of people think I’m going to get touched on the chin, I’m going to wobble and I’m going to go down. Whatever. So a lot of people, they’ve just got to see if I have it or not. You know what I mean? So of course they’re going to go for the older veteran. You know, this guy just knocked out Pacquiao. They’re going to bet on him, they’re going to want him to win. You know? And that’s just the way it is, man.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.