Last November, prior to his successful return to the ring after a long layoff, jr. welterweight champion Timothy Bradley was already talking about his game plan to beat WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. While speaking to a group of reporters in attendance during his open workout, Bradley shared his thoughts on Pacquiao's style and what he would do to take advantage of the errors he thinks he makes. "When I'm fighting, you never see me get hit every time with the same punch 3 or 4 times," Bradley would comment when comparing his skills to the techniques that Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach has been teaching both Pacquiao and Amir Khan. Although he praised Pacquiao for his ability to land punches from different angles, Bradley sounded as if he already had him figured out and was looking forward to implementing a specific strategy that he already had in mind.
"I'ma tell you what makes Manny Pacquiao very, very special. Manny Pacquiao punches from the weirdest angles; the weirdest angles. Shots you don't see, alright. He's here, he's there, he's underneath here, his body shots, so, and when he feints you, he wants you to cover up. He does. He'll drop a feint, and then as soon as you drop a feint and you put your hands up, he'll run those combinations off of you; then spin around you, side step you, run those combinations off of you," Bradley explained, breaking down Pacquiao's abilities as if he just got done watching tape on him. "You come back on him, he'll lay up against the ropes, he'll put his hands up, he'll let you punch him. Well at that time, he's recovering. He's taking a breather. He's like, 'Okay, come on, come on.' Then after you stop, then he comes right back on you, you know?"
According to Bradley, there's a very simple plan to counteract everything he just described. "Isolate him with your feet, man. You gotta isolate him with your feet and good defense," he remarked when asked how he would deal with Pacquiao should the two ever meet in the ring. It's a strategy that seemed to work perfectly for Marquez, who literally isolated Pacquiao with his feet on several occasions when he stepped on his foot a number of times. Obviously stepping on his foot is not exactly what Bradley meant, but he will need to use good defense and the right kind of footwork to keep Pacquiao off balance and reaching with his left hand. If he does that, then he'll have an excellent chance of taking advantage of Pacquiao's flaws.
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