Pacquiao's Ex-Trainer: No Surprise if Trilogy Ends in Draw

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

The trainer who steered Manny Pacquiao to his first world title – the WBC flyweight championship when he knocked out Thailand’s Chatchai Sasakul in the 8th in December 1998, says he doesn’t believe Pacquiao’s third bout with Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley will be an easy fight.

The showdown is set for the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 9, some eleven months after Pacquiao dropped a unanimous twelve round decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr in the “Fight of the Century” last May 2, 2015.

The fight itself was a letdown as Pacquiao claimed he aggravated a tear in his rotator cuff  in his right shoulder in round four for which he underwent surgery in Los Angeles five days later.

Staheli told the New Standard/BoxingScene.com that “Manny will have to work for twelve rounds and the long layoff plus all the political stuff in running for a Senate seat is bound to make it difficult..”

In fact Staheli believes the fight will be “a toss up and I won’t be surprised if it ends in a draw.”

He also noted that that while “this is a big moment in Manny’s life you’ve got to consider the age factor” pointing out that Pacquiao is 37 years old while Bradley is 32.

Staheli said he was hoping Pacquiao picked “somebody different” but indicated that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum “wants to keep it in-house.”

He said “they mentioned the name of Adrien Broner and that would have been an interesting fight.”

Staheli remarked that Bradley “is the same old guy. He will box to be effective but he can’t go in there and bang with people.”

While there’s been a lot of talk about Bradley’s stoppage of Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios, trainer Staheli noted that Rios “was not the same Rios who fought Pacquiao and lost a lopsided decision.”

He recalled that Rios trained really hard for the Pacquiao fight, but Manny dominated him. Against Bradley it was no surprise that he got stopped after being hurt early with body shots.