Diaz Warns: Could Be Dangerous For Tim Bradley Late

By Edward Chaykovsky

Joel Diaz, the former trainer of WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (32-1) issued a warning that it might become very dangerous for his former fighter in the late rounds of his upcoming contest with dangerous puncher Brandon Rios (33-2). The HBO televised fight is scheduled for November 7th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Diaz and Bradley had some issues behind the scenes and Bradley made a decision to break their long-term relationship. He went on to hire Teddy Atlas, who is best known for training several former heavyweight champions and appearing in his commentating role for ESPN.

Diaz says the fight could be much easier if Bradley sticks to his boxing, but he tends to get dragged into slugfests.

Bradley is not a knockout hitter and won't be able to seriously hurt Rios. He's only scored one stoppage win since 2007 and his last few fights have been very tough. Rios too has seen better days, but he looked refreshed in his last fight when he demolished Mike Alvarado in three easy rounds back in January.

"Bradley can fight that fight if he wants. He can make that fight a fight that he can benefit himself by just boxing and moving, but Bradley is a type of guy that has a lot of pride in himself and the only one that could control him was me. I knew how to control him at some points. We’ll see if his new trainer has any authority to control him because if not, he can get in trouble," Diaz told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

"Brandon Rios fought Manny Pacquiao and Pacquiao is a devastating puncher and he could not really hurt Brandon Rios. Tim Bradley doesn’t have the power to hurt Rios and if Brandon Rios applies the pressure on Bradley and wears him out, it could be a dangerous fight in the later rounds. It just depends on what they got and what they’re working on and the kind of strategy they’ve got."