By Edward Chaykovsky
Former two division world champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) wants stamps his legacy with a victory over Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) in their HBO Pay-Per-View trilogy fight on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
When boxing fans reflect on Pacquiao's career, he wants his name to be mentioned as the guy who beat the Filipino star in his final career fight.
In their first fight in 2012, Bradley won a controversial twelve round split decision to Pacquiao. Their 2014 rematch saw Bradley lose a twelve round unanimous decision in clear fashion.
Bradley's new weapon in the fight is the addition of trainer Teddy Atlas. He was trained for the first two fights, and his entire career, by Joel Diaz. They parted ways last September.
“I want to be remembered, I want to be talked about,” Bradley said. “Anytime they bring up Manny Pacquiao’s name in the future, guess what? I want to be mentioned among those lines. ‘Timothy Bradley beat him.’ ”
Atlas has been studying a lot of film to get Bradley ready for this contest. The fights that have peaked his interest the most are Pacquaio's outings with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez. They gave the eight division world champion the most trouble in the last decade.
Pacquiao has been inactive since last May's twelve round decision loss to Mayweather, while Bradley - in his first bout with Atlas - knocked out Brandon Rios last November.
"A lot of times, people look at film, and they just see pictures," Atlas said. "They just see people doing things fast. But you've got to slow down in your mind, and you can't just look, you've got to actually see what's transpiring, what's happening before the obvious.
“There’s always something before the obvious, before the great Manny Pacquiao explodes forward with those great surges. There’s always something before that. Hopefully we’ve seen that.”
