There was a time when Timothy Bradley Jr. went into every fight with a toothy grin and Joel Diaz. When he faces Brandon ?Bam Bam? Rios at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas tomorrow night, the smile may be replaced with a jaded look, and Diaz ? in the most ironic of turnouts ? will be barking instructions at Ruslan Provodnikov somewhere in Monte Carlo.
Bart Barry has referred to the match as the year?s most honest prizefight, and, indeed, there have been few fights this year ? even by boxing?s poor, haphazard standards ? that can escape being labeled as disingenuous. With the PBC vortex rapidly sucking up any airtime, available venues, and fighters, traditional promotional outfits ? like Top Rank, the promoter for both Bradley and Rios ? have found themselves unable to fully service their marquee clients. It hardly helped that in Top Rank?s case it?s most important partner, HBO, could not put forth the budget to showcase their top fighters more consistently. (Nowhere was this more evident than with Terence Crawford). truTV, no matter how loudly Top Rank touts the network, is a mere blip in the televised boxing constellation. Will HBO, which has deals with Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, Terence Crawford, and Andre Ward have room for the likes of Bradley and Rios in 2016? Where would they fit in HBO?s ever-burgeoning narrative of knockout artists and ring technicians? Such questions explain why Bradley vs. Rios has something of a rueful quality. Just how many fights like this can we expect next year? Moreover, how many more fights will we see the Bradley of old?
He used to promise knockouts like a preacher on the pulpit proclaiming the coming of the Apocalypse. A small tweak in the way he torqued his hips and turned his punches, he insisted, would produce what his chiseled physique had always looked capable of. (Surely, all those countless sessions of pounding on 4?4 tires with a sledgehammer did not go to waste). So it came as a bit of a surprise when Bradley, with the new hire of ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas, made a wholly different sort of prediction: ?How many guys have I knocked out in my whole career?? Bradley, 32-1-1-1, posed to Boxingscene. ?Twelve guys. There is not going to be a knockout in this fight. It?s not going to happen. It?s just not going to happen?Brandon is not getting knocked out.?
In an era run amok by fighters whose hubris (and paychecks) drives them to engage in pathetic Twitter spats and to conduct delusional Youtube interviews, Bradley?s sobering ? and accurate ? assessment of his own abilities is commendable, even if it veers on self-deprecation. But if Bradley, Coachella, California, is no longer gunning for the knockout, he has also expressed no interest in getting in close with Rios. Perhaps Atlas was able to successfully reconfigure the part in Bradley?s head that drives him to brawl? but until he gets clobbered with a hard shot, we won?t know how he?ll respond.
Frankly, 32-year-old fighters do not change much between fights. Rios? camp has a point: Bradley can?t run forever and he isn?t Pacquiao. Moreover, it?s that sliver of vulnerability in Bradley that has endeared him to the most passionate boxing fans. Still, the thinking goes that if Bradley could once out-counter a counter specialist in Juan Manual Marquez, and stay largely competitive against Manny Pacquiao, Bradley will only find the flatfooted, predictable Rios a simple proposition.
Rios, Oxnard, California, is hardly a dexterous boxer but against the right opponent, his simple infighting tactics are brutally effective; his stalking style is a direct expression of his unquestionable heart. When a fighter breaks out into tears during an interview because he realizes his best efforts are not worthy of a win, you can be sure that fighting is more than sport or commerce, but an intractable part of who he is. Rios? discipline, however, is another matter, one which invites plenty of scrutiny.
It was no secret that his first few weeks of training camp had been tough. It?s one thing to get motivated in the gym when a big fight materializes, but if you haven?t been in shape for months (Rios, 29, has gone on record saying that he was up to as much as 200 pounds during the summer), no amount of motivation will cover up the holes in your physical condition. The good work that he put in against a depleted Mike Alvarado earlier in the year should?ve been enough to garner a fight in the summer, but again, with Top Rank having trouble keeping even its flagship fighters busy, Rios, 33-2-1 (24), fell behind in priority. Such circumstance is not likely to change unless ?Bam Bam? is able to lure Bradley into a dog fight and come out the victor. Rios, of all people, firmly understands the tenuous circumstance of his career and is no more comforted by this realization:
?If I lose, this could be it for my career,? he told the Los Angeles Times. ?I?m not going to fight for $30,000, or fight on truTV, Telefutura, Fox, whatever ? they? won?t pay me what I want. ? All I?ve ever done is boxing, so it?s scary to think about? honestly, I don?t even know what I?d do. I?m scared. I can?t think about it.?
After being relegated to scum-of-the-earth status following his victory over Manny Pacquiao, Bradley responded by offering up his body to the hands of Provodnikov. ?I gave the fans and I gave the fans and I gave the world and just everybody a piece of me, man. I left it all in that ring,? said Bradley in a RingTV interview. Compare that with a more recent statement: ?I need to start doing [things] more correctly. Keeping my hands up. Not getting hit with those big shots. Stop making so many mistakes.? Maybe a boxer?s career can be generally characterized this way: there is the part where he fights for the fans and the part where he tries to take care of himself. Bradley?s mind has clearly shifted to the latter ? the ?Bradley Brand? as he calls it. If the final press conference yesterday was any indication (in which Bradley repeatedly scolded the media, claiming that he ?owned everything? that he possessed), one can only hope that he hasn?t totally forgotten the traits ? his verve, courage, and determination ? that have gotten him to this stage in the first place.
