COMMENTARY | Can a fighter regain his killer instinct? Can a boxer learn to fight with urgency again, despite being good enough to sleepwalk his way through most victories? Can hunger be reinstalled into a fighter’s psyche?
These are the questions facing Manny Pacquiao as he prepares for his April 12 return bout for the WBO welterweight title against Timothy Bradley. The answers will determine whether Pacquiao gets a full measure of revenge for a controversial split decision loss to Bradley back in June of 2012.
Chances are pretty good that, had Pacquiao rematched Bradley immediately after the loss, he would’ve had a relatively easy go of it. However, in the time between then and now, both men may have been fundamentally transformed as fighters.
For Bradley, a hard-earned victory over Ruslan Provodnikov in a Fight of the Year brawl and a skillful decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez in 2013 have cemented his place near the very top of the welterweight division. No longer a top junior welterweight trying his hand at 147, Bradley exudes confidence now and will be applying that bravado in a fight he seems to be treating as a shot at redemption and a chance to prove, once and for all, that he actually did beat Pacquiao the first time.
Pacquiao, on the other hand, just turned around a two-fight losing streak with a one-sided decision over Brandon Rios.
For the Filipino icon, the Rios win reversed an ugly downward spiral that saw him lose to Bradley, get knocked out cold by Juan Manuel Marquez later that same year, and then spend the majority of 2013 contemplating his future. Even the victory against Rios was equal parts bitter and sweet with criticism tossed his way for not finishing off a badly outclassed opponent apparently resigned to defeat from almost the first round.
Most observers believe that Pacquiao beat Bradley in their first encounter. However, can a flat Pacquiao, devoid of fire, handle a Bradley who is bursting with confidence?
This is yet another question to answer, April 12.
“Manny didn’t look the same against Rios,” Bradley told the media during Tuesday’s initial Pacquiao-Bradley II press conference. “He didn’t have his usual killer instinct. That’s the first thing I noticed.
“I don’t think he has the hunger anymore and it’s never coming back. He no longer has his killer instinct. That’s the first thing I noticed in the Rios fight. Every time he backed Rios into a corner, Manny stepped back instead of going for it. He didn’t even try to put Rios away. That spoke volumes to me.”
Pacquiao, of course, is saying differently and insists that, this time, he’s going to go out of his way to do some damage.
“The only way Bradley can beat me this time is to knock me out,” Pacquiao said. “He cannot outbox me. I will be the aggressor. I will throw a lot of punches at him – more than I threw against Rios — and I will land them. Last time I was too nice. This time, I will finish what I start?I want to get back that belt he won off of me.”
Talk is truly cheap in boxing and nobody knows what will go on between Bradley and Pacquiao until they are both actually in the ring and the bell sounds. But if both fighters live up to their words, something special will happen on April 12.
