MANILA, Philippines ? The size and shape of Timothy Bradley?s head are a cause for concern as WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao prepares to stake his crown against the unbeaten challenger called ?Desert Storm? in a 12-round bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas this Saturday night (Sunday morning, Manila).
Pacquiao?s trainer Freddie Roach is worried that because of Bradley?s come-forward style, the fight could turn ugly with the possibility of a headbutt causing a premature stoppage. Roach has laid out a plan for Pacquiao to avoid colliding heads but Bradley is known to use his head like a battering ram when he charges in. Pacquiao will be ready to dodge the bullet when the time comes.
What?s frightful is Bradley?s skull is shaped like a helmet. Pacquiao hasn?t fought anyone with a head quite like Bradley?s. The advantage for the Filipino ring icon is because Bradley?s head is big, it?s a larger target and easier to hit.
In Bradley?s boxing history, he has opened cuts through headbutts on at least seven opponents ? Jorge Padilla, Eli Addison, Jaime Rangel, Manuel Garnica, Nate Campbell, Carlos Abregu and Devon Alexander. Three of his fights ended in a technical decision and one was a no-contest because Bradley?s opponents were ruled unfit to continue due to a cut inflicted by a headbutt. Two of the three fights that were stopped and went to the scorecards involved southpaws Rangel and Alexander. When a lefthander faces a righthander, the incidence of headbutting is a higher possibility particularly if one of the two fighters has a tendency to engage with his head forward. Bradley is righthanded and Pacquiao, a southpaw.
In 2006, Rangel rocked Bradley with a right hook in the second round and a left in the third. Midway through the eighth, Rangel was cut over the right eye by a headbutt and the fight was stopped. The crowd in Santa Ynez, California, booed when the decision was announced, awarding Bradley a unanimous technical decision on identical scores of 79-73. ?I learned a lot in this fight,? said Bradley. ?He stunned me in the second round. He was awkward. He threw punches from weird angles. I just had to slow it down and be patient.?
In 2009, Campbell was cut over his left eye by Bradley in the third round and couldn?t go on in a fight in Rancho Mirage, California. Bradley led on the three judges? scorecards, 30-27, at the time of stoppage but because the fight was halted inside three rounds, it was declared a no-contest. ?I was just doing my job,? said Bradley. ?It didn?t matter anyway. He was getting older and older through the fight. I was beating him easily.?
Last year, Bradley faced southpaw Alexander in a WBO/WBC lightwelterweight unification title fight in Pontiac, Michigan. Alexander was dizzied by a butt in the 10th round and couldn?t continue because of the cut opened by the clash of heads. Bradley won via a unanimous technical decision on scores of 97-93, 98-93 and 96-95. ?He jumped in, he just didn?t want to get hit by the big shot,? said Bradley. ?Both of us were coming in, going back and forth throughout the fight. Give Alexander time and he?ll box you to pieces. I didn?t give him that time.?
Writer Graham Houston said Bradley did what he had to do to beat the previously unbeaten Alexander. ?Bradley once again showed he is one of the strongest-willed, most doggedly determined and tenacious fighters in the business as well as being a pocket-Hercules type physically,? wrote Houston. ?He did what I like to see a fighter do, which is to come out ready to fight from the opening bell and let the other man know immediately that he had better be ready for a long, hard night. Bradley has boxing ability but he was simply too much fighter for the supposedly more highly skilled Alexander. The strategy was simple but effective. Don?t let Alexander get settled, fire right hands, get rough with him, keep him thinking defensively. Bradley was taking most of the rounds. Alexander did shoot in some nice left hands from his southpaw stance but Bradley?s well-placed right hands were creating the more vivid impression.?
It?s alarming that there is a high frequency of headbutting in Bradley?s fights. The fact that two of his fights against southpaws ended in technical decisions should be a warning for Pacquiao. Bradley likes to lead off with his huge head, intimidating opponents in the process as they are distracted in avoiding a butting situation instead of focusing on engaging.
Gary Andrew Poole, writing in The Ring Magazine, called Bradley?s tendency a case of ?chronic headbutting.? He said, ?Right now, Bradley has little name recognition outside of boxing and is mostly known by casual fans for what seems to be chronic headbutting ? hopefully, this doesn?t happen against Pacquiao but it could because the Filipino typically lunges into the pocket aggressively.
