Pacquiao out to prove he can still fight as Bradley aims to avenge his 2012 victory

Manny ‘Pacman’ Paquiao

Cebu’s  boxing community will be rooting for  Filipino champ  Manny Pacquiao as he goes into the ring today at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada to face his unbeaten American tormentor, Timothy Bradley.

But many of them say beating Bradley will not be easy.

Aside from the WBO welterweight belt which Bradley  “stole” from Pacquiao through  a split decision victory in June 2012,  a lot more is at stake in today’s fight.

Bradley would have to avenge his 2012 victory as few agreed with the two judges who gave him that split decision.

Pacquiao,35,  is fighting both Bradley and the perception that he has lost his competitive fire, becoming more interested in politics and compassion than the brutal business of boxing.

“It’s Pacquiao by decision. When Bradley won their first fight, it served as a wake-up call for Manny. Manny wants to get back where he was before,” said Michael Aldeguer, president and CEO of ALA Promotions.

“I think Bradley will go into the fight wanting to survive and avoid getting knocked out,” he  added.

Donnie “Ahas” Nietes, one of the prized ALA Gym fighters, also believes Pacquiao will come out victorious.

“Pacquiao will win the fight. He dominated their first fight and I won’t be surprised if he scores a knockout in this one,” said Nietes, the reigning WBO light flyweight champion.

Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista, the Boholano boxer who is staging a comeback, also sees a Pacquiao victory.

“Pacquiao will win but it’s going to be a very difficult fight for him because Bradley is already familiar with his style,” said Bautista, who had announced his retirement a few months ago but is set to step into the ring again on May 10.

ALA Gym trainer Edito Villamor said Pacquiao had done enough in the training camp to score a victory.

“Pacquiao said he trained hard for this fight. Pacquiao dominated Bradley in their first meeting despite reports that there were a lot of distractions in his training. If indeed he trained hard for this fight, Pacquiao has a big chance of pulling a victory,” Villamor said.

Boxing trainer Christopher “Pingping” Tepora of the Omega Boxing Gym  predicted   that Pacquiao will win by decision. Although he picked Pacquiao, Tepora, the trainer of the reigning IBF light flyweight champion Johnriel “Quadro Alas” Casimero said that the Filipino will have a hard time catching Bradley  whom he expects to be on guard  the entire fight.

“Para nako daog si Pacquiao kay sa akong nakita grabe kayo iyang concentration ug training kay desidedo jud siya makabalos ni Bradley. Pero akong tan-aw makadaog lang siya sa puntos kay expected naman nga si Bradley mag sige ug dagan” said Tepora.

Former WBO minimumweight champion, Merlito “Tiger” Sabillo, said it’s a tough call although he will always be on the side of Pacquiao as his patriotism demands and for the immense pride the fighting congressman has given the country.

Sabillo, who recently lost his WBO minimumweight title in Mexico against Francisco Rodriguez, refused to make any predictions since he believes both boxers prepared well for the fight.

He said Pacquiao-Bradley 2 will surely give boxing fans an epic fight.

IBF minimumweight champion Johnriel “Quadro Alas” Casimero is putting his money on Pacquiao, but said he is worried if  the fight goes the full 12 rounds since Bradley’s only hope of winning is by accumulating points through the rounds. He said Pacquiao must knock out Bradley or else he will again lose in the judges’ scorecards.

“I’m rooting for Pacquiao of course, but he has to score a knockout. We know that Bradley will surely move backwards but he can also land solid shots. These are points that could pile up in the scorecards. Stopping Bradley though, will be very difficult.”

Although WBO international referee Danrex Tapdasan said he is for Pacquiao, a victory for the eight-division world champion will be far from easy.

Tapdasan believes it will be a classic cat-and-mouse game as he expects Bradley will not engage Pacquiao in a brawl.

“So, this will be a classic ‘cat-and-mouse’ game. In that kind of game, the cat should not be one-dimensional in his attack as the mouse is too clever for that,” Tapdasan told CDN.

In this fight, he said, Pacquiao will be the cat.

“It will be another decision. The subjectivity of judging a boxing fight will still come into play. I predict that Bradley will do better this time compared to the first fight and so will

Pacquiao. Both of them will show an improvement from their previous fight. It will be another close and debatable decision and Pacquiao will get it this time.”/with AP