After losing to Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao last April, former WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley is set to face durable Diego Chaves of Argentina at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Saturday night in a 12-round non-title fight..
Both fighters are coming off defeats in their last fights with Bradley losing to Pacquiao via a unanimous decision last April while Chaves is recovering from his loss against Brandon Rios last August on a disqualification (DQ) verdict. While Chaves is a known knockout artist?having knocked out 19 of his past 24 opponents?he will find Bradley difficult to hit as he did with Brandon Rios when he was slapped with a DQ verdict. Bradley’s edge lies on his improved skill which was honed with his experience in the ring with Pacquiao in two of their epic fights. Having fought Pacquiao and some of today’s elite fighters including Juan Manuel Marquez and Ruslan Provodnikov, Bradley has morphed into a skillful and talented fighter with awesome power and speed. Bradley has been winning fights all his pro life until Pacquiao came into his life courtesy of Bob Arum, who handles both fighters in his Top Rank Promotions outfit. Having won over Pacquiao in their first encounter, Bradley gained the confidence he needed to boost his career but Arum discovered that Bradley is hard to sell to the fight fans as he had no fan base for support. Added to his negligible number of fans, he had difficulty in attracting fans support even from social media because of his boring fight style and the fans impression that he is a dirty fighter. These all came to pass however after his face off with Pacquiao for the first time, allowing him more access to fight fans because of his wider reach brought about by the popular media support that Pacquiao usually gets in promoting the fight. Now, Bradley has not only attracted thousands of new fans but has also erased his “boring fighter” tag with his active and professional demeanor in the ring. Read more. For his part, Chavez is expected to come forward to penetrate Bradley’s perimeter as the Palm Springs boxing star keeps a safe distance to avoid early confrontation. But it would be futile for Chaves to go for the kill in the early rounds knowing Bradley’s hard lesson learned for the Provonikov fight where he almost paid the price for his recklessness. Chaves is dangerous from the inside as he fights more like a brawler and this is where Bradley will have to be prepared to counter. The Argentinian is expected to lure Bradley inside his trap and if Bradley bites, Chaves will definitely engage him in a brawl which could be disastrous for Bradley. Chaves is a knockout artist and very dangerous in the short range distance while Bradley is the opposite and will be happy to win on points. Looking at their own individual weak and strong points, it appears that Bradley will emerge victorious with a unanimous decision in the judges’ scorecard.
