TIMOTHY BRADLEY?S trainer Joel Diaz is glad that almost two years will have elapsed between his fighter?s controversial victory over Manny Pacquiao, and Saturday?s rematch. All the headlines surrounding that first encounter centred on the decision that handed Bradley victory. Most observers had Pacquiao a comfortable winner.
?I felt that Tim won that fight,? said Diaz. ?But that doesn?t feel like a victory now. The celebration that followed the decision soon became like a funeral. It was like a family member had suddenly died. It was like a tiny spark of joy, and then it was like being hit by a bus.?
Bradley revealed this week that he and his family had to deal with death threats as a result of that June 2012 bout.
?He was very disappointed after that fight,? Diaz revealed. ?He was depressed. He was emotionally hurt by the sport of boxing. There were times when he just wanted to cry. When a fighter wins, he should be happy. Tim wasn?t. He didn?t even want to come out of his house.?
Diaz went on to explain that Bradley?s first performance after that Pacquiao scrap ? a thrilling but kamikaze win over Ruslan Provodnikov ? was a result of those frustrations. Bradley wanted to make an impression, to fight aggressively, and he was in trouble early due to his carelessness. Diaz believes if the Pacquaio rematch had been an immediate one, his fighter would have made those same mistakes.
?If we?d have gone straight back in with Manny Pacquiao he would have started like that,? Diaz said. ?He would have been too aggressive and had exactly the same mindset that he had at the start of the Provodnikov fight. He would have had that dangerous mindset.?
Bradley insists that the hangover has now cleared ? from both the Pacquiao controversy and the Provodnikov brutality ? and, despite Diaz?s fears, he will not adopt a safety-first approach against Pacquiao.
?We?re not like Freddie Roach, we don?t play mind games, so if Tim says he is going to be in Manny?s face, you can expect to see him in Manny?s face,? Diaz continued. ?Tim is serious. You can apply pressure without walking forward.?
Diaz admits that the contentious outcome of their opener increases the pressure on everyone involved.
?We have to win convincingly,? he said. ?Everyone, even the judges, will feel the pressure. If the rounds are close I expect the judges will give them to Manny. I don?t care who the judges are, I just hope they do their jobs because the pressure on their backs will be huge.
?If we lose, we lose. It will be better than what happened last time and everything that happened. We?ve been dealing with that for two years.?
The coach, wearing dark glasses, hopes that 35-year-old Pacquiao is at his best. But he does not expect that to be the case.
?Two years have gone by [from the first fight],? he explained. ?The older you get, the harder it gets. Manny Pacquiao has had 60 fights. Each of those fights have had tough training camps. He?s been knocked out. It all adds up. But we want the best of Pacquiao, because if we go in there and knock him out, we won?t get credit again. All we?ll hear is that Pacquiao is past his best.
?We?re ready for this fight. There is no ill-effects in Tim from Provodnikov. He showed that when he beat [Juan Manuel] Marquez [last year]. It?s all positive because he stood up to those shots from Provodnikov and they were big punches. He says Ruslan hit him like he?d never been hit before. Manny has speed, but Ruslan is the heavier hitter. We?re ready for everything.?
