FightHype.com was on hand as undefeated jr. welterweight champion Timothy Bradley held a conference call to promote the upcoming June 9th welterweight title clash with 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. “I feel that there’s not just one plan you can do to beat Pacquiao. I mean, you know, you see Marquez step back, counterpunch, counterpunch, counterpunch, but he didn’t get the decision…If you want to win the championship, you gotta take it to the champion, you know? You gotta make a fight out of it…Pacquiao don’t fight well inside. He throws flurries, combinations, and then he gets out. He’ll step out on an angle and come back with a shot; step out on an gle. He don’t really stand there and bang, but maybe they’re working on it now, you know what I mean? Maybe they trying to back me up and take it to me, so, you know, we’re aware of that. We’re aware of anything,” stated Bradley and you don’t want to miss what else he had to say about Pacquiao, the fight, and much more. Check it out!
TIMOTHY BRADLEY:
This is the fight I’ve been waiting on 18 years of my life, you know? It’s finally here. I’m ready for this moment. I’m ready to take the throne. I’m excited. Training and preparation has been going great. I’m in the best shape of my life.
I’m dialed in. I’m on weight. We left the gym at 147 pounds today, so I will be probably coming in kind of light the day of the weigh-ins, maybe 145, maybe 144, but, you know, I’m just eating a little bit more and I feel great. Confident and I’m ready to deliver.
I don’t care what Freddie Roach say; he ain’t in the ring fighting for Pacquiao and he ain’t in my training camp, so I really don’t care what he say, you know what I mean? He can say whatever he want. I know what I’m training and prepared to do, you know what I mean, and I know I come to fight, and they know I come to fight, so there’s no real secret to this. In order to beat the champion, you definitely gotta take it to the champion and that’s what we set out to do. We’re setting out to win this fight and not to dance around and look pretty, so I don’t care what he say, I don’t care what Pacquiao say, I’m ready to go.
I just systematically break ’em down. I take every punch away from them, you know, starting with the jab. I take that away, then I take their straight left away, go to the body, break ’em down and apply the pressure, you know? If you’re not hitting hard in there and I don’t feel threatened, I’m gonna take it to you…the way I fight, you know, my intensity level is very high and most guys can’t fight at a high pace like me, so, you know, I use my conditioning and my strength to basically win my fights the majority of the time. In this fight, I’m definitely going to have to be a lot smarther because they say Pacquiao hits very hard with the left hand and the right hook, so I’ll be able to feel out in the first round and see what he really has and if he does have some power, I definitely have to be smart in there and outbox this guy, you know, but if I don’t feel like he can’t hurt me, then I’m definitely going to step to him and I’m going to make a fight out of it.
Yeah, I’m confident, man. You know, I mean, I’m so confident, man, I’m just ready…I done put in the work, I done put in the time…for the last 4 years, I’ve been studying this guy, I’ve been looking at this guy, I admire this guy…I’m putting it all on the line, you know, so you’re going to see a good fight.
Straight left? Man, I don’t know, in training I know I’m dealing with it, you know, I’m not getting hit a whole lot with it. In the beginning of training camp, I was getting hit a lot with the straight left, but now, I’m eluding it to the side, stepping underneat it, you know, great defense, great footwork, and just counterpunching…I’m dialed in on the left hand.
The guy can still, he can fight, man, you know what I mean? He’s a great fighter. I think he’s going to be; he’s coming to take me out. There’s a huge fight looming over his head, you know, the fight that everybody wants to see is Floy Mayweather and Pacquiao or whatever, but, you know, he has to deal with me, you know what I mean, on June 9th and that’s going to be a tough task. So I think he’s going to be at his very, very best, you know, and he’s definitely going to try and take me out early.
We’ve definitely been working on trying to eliminate headbutts…we have been working on it in the gym over and over and over and I’ve been very successful with it in sparring and keeping my balance…I definitely don’t want this fight to end on a headbutt…I don’t want any excuses at the end of the day.
It was never a thought in mind going into this fight; it was never a thought in my mind to do the drug testing…when I signed for this fight, we didn’t really talk about that…I’m not worried at all, you know what I mean. Pacquiao is Pacquiao and he’s supposed to be a changed man.
I have a really good chin. I’ve only been down once, man, and that was a punch I didn’t see from Kendall, but you know, you did see me get up. You did see me fight hard and get the victory, so, you know. I’ve been on the canvas before, you know, it’s nothing new to me. I’ve been down there before and I know what it feels like; I’m going to get up and I’m going to fight to the end, man.
I feel that there’s not just one plan you can do to beat Pacquiao. I mean, you know, you see Marquez step back, counterpunch, counterpunch, counterpunch, but he didn’t get the decision because you know what? It seemed like he wanted to win, man, you know what I mean? If you want to win the championship, you gotta take it to the champion, you know? You gotta make a fight out of it, so if Marquez would have stepped up, you know, grabbed his balls and stepped to Pacquiao and made a fight out of it, you know, and win the last couple of rounds, he probably could have won the fight, but he didn’t do that, you know what I mean? He laid back, you know, and let Pacquiao control the tempo, control the action, and Pacquiao ended up winning those rounds, so, you know, it’s just a mixture of thing, man. One thing that I do very well is I know how to win, and I know when I’m down, I know when I gotta pick it up, and so I just have to be able to make adjustments in the ring, and I’m really good at that. It just depends on how Pacquiao comes out, man, you know what I mean? So we’re working 50/50. 50 on boxing; 50 on brawling.
Pacquiao don’t fight well inside. He throws flurries, combinations, and then he gets out. He’ll step out on an angle and come back with a shot; step out on an gle. He don’t really stand there and bang, but maybe they’re working on it now, you know what I mean? Maybe they trying to back me up and take it to me, so, you know, we’re aware of that. We’re aware of anything, you know? We just prepare ourselves for the worst, you know? Maybe he will come forward and just try to bang me out, you know? Then that’s when I need to go to boxing, you know. The thing is, I’m very schooled. I’m very schooled, you know, a schooled fighter. I know when to move, I know when to box, I know when to brawl. I just gotta put it all together.
I’m faster than ever now and stronger, you know. I’m at my very best, man…I’m super fast, combinations is there, you know, the strength is there, the power is there, everything is there…and the footwork is there, so, you know, everything is there, man. I’m firing on all cylinders. Reactions is there, timing is there; I’m ready to go, man. Y’all gonna see an exciting fight, man. I promise you guys. It’s going to be a great fight.
