Bradley and Rios meet in crossroads welterweight fight

“That was the best Bradley I’ve ever seen, and we’ve had him for so many years”, says Arum on Desert Storm who may have just catapulted himself to the shortlist of potential opponents that Pacquiao will be facing in April, 2016.

The fans who thought that Brandon Rios had a hope of being competitive with the ultra-fit Timothy Bradley must have missed the one where Tim out-boxed Juan Manuel Marquez; that wasn’t an accident.

So far, so good for the partnership between Timothy Bradley and new trainer Teddy Atlas.

Robert Garcia, “Bam Bam’s” trainer, told ESPN Deportes that he believes his boxer could knock out Bradley by pure talent and not because Bradley “was finished”, Boxing Scene noted.

Round after round Bradley maneuvered inside and kept turning Rios, who tried to battle back, but could not get a bead on the speedy prizefighter from Palm Springs.

The 5-foot-6 Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) weighed a healthy 146 pounds and the dehydrated 5-foot-8 Rios (33-2-1, 23 KOs) went 147 for their welterweight showdown. “The Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas is a venue rich in history and HBO is privileged to broadcast the event for our World Championship Boxing franchise”. However, Bradley would win them over as he scored a rare knockout which he setup with devastating body punches and tactical boxing.

Bradley was the bona fide light welterweight champion and was undefeated when he moved up, but has encountered serious difficulty taking the punches of bigger opposition. It really isn’t. They prepared for a much larger version of the Brandon Rios who, in 2011, blitzed both Miguel Acosta and Urbano Antillon, surely, and Bradley did in fact look better.

A few of the backstory in this one includes this being Bradley’s first fight with Teddy Atlas as he will be his main trainer after splitting with longtime trainer Joel Diaz.

Many are suggesting that the look in the fighter’s eyes throughout the rant was one of an athlete being truly inspired by his coach.

Rios shook his head and was met in his corner by Bradley, who hugged the fallen ex-lightweight world champion. Fourteen of his last 18 victories have come by way of knockout. But still … current WBO welterweight champion Bradley is not known as a power-puncher. “If Alvarado was not prepared or was not ready to fight, that’s not our fault”.

The fight was supposed to be an all-out brawl, possibly a candidate for Fight of the Year.

One of the best examples of this was the speech he gave to Russian heavyweight Alexander Povetkin during his fight with Ruslan Chagaev. It was considered a finalist for the 2013 Fight of the Year award.

Bradley and Rios both share two common opponents, Manny Pacquiao and Diego Chaves. Going into Saturday’s title defense against Brandon Rios, Bradley had accumulated only 12 stoppages in 34 fights.

“I got a lot to learn”, Bradley said.

Lomachenko had an extensive and successful career as an amateur that included two gold medals.

Lomachenko is a machine in the ring.

“Sooner or later, boxing separates the pretenders from the contenders and the professionals from the fakers”. She said it’s simply too early to talk about it.

Pacquiao is recovering from a shoulder injury following his loss in the super-bout with Floyd Mayweather in May, but is remains the most recognizable name in the sport with Mayweather recently announcing his retirement.