Bradley afraid to engage Manny

MANILA, Philippines - Along cauliflower row, the talk is WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley will ride a bike inside the ring when he faces challenger Manny Pacquiao in a 12-round title bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 12. And the joke is Pacquiao will ride a motorcycle to run him down.

Bradley, 30, recently admitted he survived hell in suffering a concussion to escape with a win on points over Russian Ruslan Provodnikov in Las Vegas last March. He was floored by a vicious right hand in the first round but referee Pat Russell ruled it a slip although it was clear Provodnikov scored a knockdown. Even Bradley confessed later he was lucky to be spared a mandatory eight-count.

But in the 12th and last round, Bradley just couldn’t take the punishment anymore and knelt on one knee with 12 seconds to go after taking a left hook. The Desert Storm got up at eight and took his time in answering Russell’s question if he wanted to continue. When Bradley replied yes, the bell rang to save him from losing his belt.

Bradley said he fought on “auto-pilot,” instinctively, to stave off Provodnikov. As he was hammered by the Russian in the second round, Bradley’s wife Monica and mother Kathy couldn’t stand to watch and left their seats. Bradley paid a hefty price to prove his worth as Pacquiao’s successor on the throne and vowed never to make the same mistake again.

In his next fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, Bradley did his version of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and shoulder-rolled his way to beating the Mexican on points last October. He called it a “strategic” or tactical victory. Bradley learned his lesson in the Provodnikov brawl and will never slug it out again.

“I deserve at least five more fights where I can box in a strategic way, like against Marquez,” he said, quoted by Donald McRae in Boxing News. “Me and Provodnikov fought a classic but I never want to go back there again. I’ve got a five-year plan. I’m not greedy, I don’t need to be super-rich. I just want to take care of my bills, send my kids to college and be there when they get married. It’s all about my health. As long as my health is good, I’ll fight on. Money is great but health is the most important thing. Without health, you can’t love, without health, you can’t live. My wife worries about my health because this is a dangerous sport. So Monica wants me to take the least amount of punishment, invest my money right and get out of this game before I really get hurt.”

Bradley was confined in a hospital after the Provodnikov fight and for the first time in his career, urinated blood in testing negative for drugs. McRae said “for a long time, Bradley suffered from concussion, headaches and the shakes … he does not deny the concussions lasted for weeks.”

Bradley, the only boy with two sisters, married Monica Smoot four years ago and they have two girls. She has a son and daughter from a previous relationship. The scuttlebutt was it took a while before Bradley agreed to the Pacquiao rematch because he held out for a $10 Million purse. He eventually settled for $6 Million, a million more than what he got in the first Pacquiao fight in June 2012.

Against Pacquiao, Bradley is expected to stick and run. He won’t engage and risk his health in a toe-to-toe war. Bradley experienced hell with Provodnikov and swore he’ll never dance with the devil again. That means he’ll avoid banging with Pacquiao. He’ll slip, slide and sway. Pacquiao will pressure Bradley for sure and force a close encounter. Bradley won’t do a Joshua Clottey and stand in the middle of the ring, covering himself up with both arms raised, because he’s not as big as the Ghanaian. Clottey took Pacquiao’s shots on his arms and didn’t go down. If Bradley faces Pacquiao upright, he’ll eventually fall even if he hides in a defensive shell. The key for Pacquiao is cutting the ring off on Bradley who’ll retreat, move side to side and create distance in keeping out of range.

Bradley said he’s looking forward to beating Pacquiao “to get rid of this dark cloud that has been looming over me since 2012.” Although he outpointed Pacquiao to wrest the WBO crown on a split decision in their first meeting, it was widely recognized as a bum verdict. He said he welcomes the chance “to shut up the naysayers and everyone who felt I can’t win or won’t win this fight and that I didn’t win the last fight.”