source: gmanetwork.com
Junior welterweight champion Timothy Ray Bradley Jr. plans on using his head when he faces The Ring's pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao on June 9; just not in the way some are expecting.
Bradley (28-0, 12 knockouts) of Palm Springs, Calif. said that he'll adjust his fighting style to avoid head clashes with Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs) in their World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title match at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This comes after Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach and training partner Amir Khan have cautioned the "Pacman" about Bradley's propensity to lead with his head and cause cuts on his opponents.
"All of this talk about head clashes, when you have a righty and a lefty, the power hands are lined up on the same side, it's almost inevitable for a head clash to happen," said Bradley, who began training camp this week in his hometown in Palm Springs, California.
Bradley, 28, points to the aggressive southpaw Pacquiao's past fights where he had suffered cuts and head butts as evidence of the difficulty in escaping head clashes when a right-handed fighter meets a southpaw.
"Go back and watch the (first Juan Manuel) Marquez fight (in 2004), there was a headbutt clash there, it wasn't Timothy Bradley. He got 20 some-odd stitches on his head. You go and watch the (Nedal) Hussein fight (in 2000), there were probably 5-6 head clashes in that fight, thank God there wasn't a cut. And it wasn't Timothy Bradley. So all of this concern about headbutts, I'm not in the ring trying to headbutt this guy.
"I want to try to limit it as much as possible, kind of like what I did against (Joel) Casamayor (last November). I was able to eliminate the head clashes. Casamayor was coming in deliberately with his head trying to headbutt me, I was able to avoid it. That's definitely a concern in my camp and we're preparing ourselves to avoid head clashes."
Kendall Holt, who had fought Bradley in 2009 in a WBO/World Boxing Council (WBC) junior welterweight title unification bout, feels that Bradley gets a bum rap for headbutts.
"I don't think he uses (his head) on purpose," said Holt, a 28-5 (16 KOs) 140-pound contender from Paterson, N.J. "I think it happens when he's trying hard."
Bradley, who will be fighting in his first mega-event, said that he wants to make an impression on fans so he can transform himself into a must-see TV attraction. And ending a fight due to a headbutt isn't the way to achieve that end, and is something that he wants to avoid.
"Believe it or not, I don't want a head clash to end this fight," said Bradley. "I don't want to put a sour taste in all the fans' mouths. People are paying their hard-earned money and expecting a competitive fight and then if after four rounds, we go to the scorecards, that's baloney, that's a bunch of garbage. I'm going to do everything in my power and hopefully Manny will do everything in his power to eliminate head clashes in this fight. We'll fight like men toe-to-toe or however it's going to go.
"That's all I can say to Manny and Freddie, I'm going to try to avoid it, you guys try to avoid it and let's make a great fight out of this and a great event for the boxing fans." — JVP, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
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