By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – According to Timothy Bradley, if you didn’t notice differences in him during his last fight, you weren’t paying close enough attention.

Bradley says he applied plenty of what new trainer Teddy Atlas taught him during their first training camp together as he dominated Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) on his way to a ninth-round technical knockout win. Some of the improvements were subtle, but Bradley believes he is a much smarter fighter, with better defensive skills, thanks to Atlas’ tutelage.

“I felt I was different,” Bradley said prior to a press conference Thursday in The Theater at Madison Square Garden to promote his April 9 rubber match against Manny Pacquiao. “My punches were tighter, combinations were sick. Man, I threw [straight] six punches with one hand. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! I never done that before. Y’all never seen me throw punches like that, combinations like that – tight in the pocket, nice, short, compact shots.”

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s outspoken trainer, and others have dismissed the importance of Bradley’s victory because they feel Rios wasn’t properly prepared for their Nov. 7 bout at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The 32-year-old Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) considers that revisionist history because the Palm Springs, California, native suspected plenty of people expected the bigger, supposedly stronger Rios to knock him out.

“I knew they were gonna pick Rios because of the Jessie Vargas ending,” Bradley said, referring to Vargas hurting him late in the 12th round of their June 27 fight in Carson, California. “They thought that he was gonna knock me out. I didn’t feel anything from Rios. I think Rios landed one solid shot on me. And I was like, ‘OK, that was it?’ ”

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.