By Keith Idec

Timothy Bradley is convinced Brandon Rios sees him as “damaged goods.”

In fact, Bradley believes his legendary war with Ruslan Provodnikov in March 2013 and his recent 12th-round scare against Jessie Vargas have completely changed the public’s perception of him as the two-division champion heads toward a Nov. 7 welterweight title fight against Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas (HBO).

“He’s going to be looking to take me out,” Bradley told BoxingScene.com. “He feels that since I got hurt with Jessie Vargas, he feels if he lands a big shot on me that I’ll get hurt and he’ll be able to finish me. They think that I’m pretty much damaged goods and everybody feels that I’m not the same, that I’m not the same guy. We’ll see. Definitely, we’ll see.”

The 32-year-old Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs, 1 NC) isn’t all that concerned with those who’ve dismissed him now that Vargas (26-1, 9 KOs), not known as a big puncher, hurt him very late in the 12th round of a June 27 bout Bradley won by unanimous decision in Carson, Calif. Skeptics doubted Bradley following his brutal battle against Provodnikov (24-4, 17 KOs) as well, but Bradley responded by beating favored Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) by split decision in his next fight, less than seven months later in Las Vegas.

“My perspective is everybody is going to write me off every now and then,” said Bradley, who recently hired Teddy Atlas to replace longtime trainer Joel Diaz. “I don’t fight every fight the same. Everybody has an opinion. I know that I wasn’t as busy as I was years ago. I’m getting up there in age. I’m 32 now. Some things probably have changed, but in my heart and in my mind I feel like I still have the ability to do whatever I want to do in the ring and still beat the best guys out there at 32 years old. You’ve got Mayweather, he’s 38, 39, closing in on 40. And you’ve got Pacquiao at that age [36] still beating young, hungry lions. So I feel I have the same opportunity and the same ability to do that.”

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.