Joel Diaz: Bradley Had No Game Plan, Looked Lost and Confused

By Radio Rahim

Veteran coach Joel Diaz was far from satisfied with Tim Bradley's performance against Manny Pacquiao last month at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Diaz had trained Bradley for nearly his entire career. Last September, the boxing world was stunned when they parted ways. Some insiders were even more stunned when Bradley named Teddy Atlas as his new head trainer. Atlas, who was basically retired from training fighters, is best known for his work with several world champions at heavyweight.

Bradley had his first fight with Atlas in November, when he knocked out Brandon Rios in nine rounds. The impressive victory was smeared, because Rios was out of shape, struggled to make weight and his training camp was lackluster by his own admission.

Atlas and Bradley had their second fight together last month. Bradley faced Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao for a third time. Bradley won a controversial twelve round decision the first time around in 2012 and then lost the rematch in 2014.

The third fight was believed to be Bradley's best opportunity to get the win - with Pacquiao announcing prior to the bout that he was retiring from the sport to pursue a full-time career in politics.

Pacquiao dominated most of the fight and had Bradley on the floor on two occasions. 

"There is nobody that knows Bradley as well as I do. Teddy Atlas could do as much as he wanted, but if there was an opportunity for Bradley to beat Pacquiao - it was this time," Diaz said.

"The game plan? There was no game plan. I saw him...he looked overtrained. He looked lost. He looked confused. And I feel bad for him, because I was with him for so long. I feel like I had my hands tied behind my back and I could have done something for him."

"But hey, it is what it is. We've moved on. I have other fighters. I have a great stable. And we move on. Sometimes we make right decisions and sometimes we make wrong decisions."