Josef T. Ramos Correspondent
The rematch between Filipino Manny Pacquiao and reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion Timothy Bradley would most likely be decided through scorecards.
Veteran international boxing referee Attorney Danrex Joseph Tapdasan believes that Bradley, 31, won’t engage Pacquiao head on just like what he did in their first meeting two years ago. Bradley’s strategy yielded a controversial split decision win.
“I’m anticipating that Bradley would not engage with Pacquiao in a brawl like what he did in their first fight because he knows that’s not his kind of fight,” said Tapdasan. “That’s Bradley’s style. He doesn’t engage with anybody.”
Tapdasan also said that bout would likely go the distance and the result would come from the judges’ scorecards that’s why Pacquiao needs to be more aggressive and smart every round. Bradley is more of a technical fighter than a brawler based on his previous fights explained Tapdasan.
“It is very tough to knockout Bradley in this fight. To win by KO, Pacquiao needs to vary his attack and confuse Bradley. He should not do less than 10 combinations as Bradley is very good in adjusting to his opponents’ styles.”
He added that to win is very important for the 35-year-old Pacquiao because it will resurrect his career revive his superstar status that he lost after absorbing two consecutive losses.
Pacquiao lost to Bradley in June 2012 and absorbed a sixth round technical knockout defeat from Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in December 2012. Pacquiao bounced back in November 2013 when he scored a majority decision win over Brandon Rios in Macau, China.
Bradley (31-0 win-loss slate with 12 knockouts) will be coming off a unanimous decision win over Russian Rocky Ruslan Provodnikov and a split decision victory against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2013.
“As to skills and conditioning, Bradley naturally has improved as he now is more experienced in fighting at the highest level,” said Tapdasan. “He achieved this after beating Pacquiao, Provodnikov and Marquez who are all high-level fighters.”
“As to his mental preparation too, Bradley will come in more prepared and composed as he has already matured as a fighter.”
He is also an official of World Boxing Organization, International Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation.