BEWARE: Super long post for the cliff notes read only the bold
In my opinion Pacquiao beat Bradley but I am wondering what style beats Bradley on paper. After watching a few Bradley fights I see why the judges have such a hard time scoring his fights. I also remember a great thread on here about this.
He lands a good amount of quick punches that don't carry a lot of steam. At the same time his foot movement keeps you from landing clean punches. Even if the punches land clean on him, it is hard to follow up. Even in the Pacquiao fight, in which I thought Bradley lost by a few rounds, I can understand why some people gave Bradley 4-5 rounds.
Bradley is a great fighter in that he takes you out of your game plan. Pretty much every single round in the Marquez fight he was controlling the pace, distance, and territory of the fight. For this reason most of the close rounds went to him since he confused Marquez. His ring generalship makes it hard to score against him.
What style of fighter do you guys think would create trouble for Bradley in a consistent fashion?
For example: most slick boxers, and movers give Marquez a hard time. This is a trend that is prevalent through his career. (Mayweather, Bradley, Norwood, John).
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Again I am just a fan of boxing with only a few amateur matches in my younger years. But I think one of the ways to beat Bradley is to not try to knock him out. You should bring up your volume with him, and not concern yourself with landing hard. Essentially fight him "pitty-pat for pitty-pat". This way the overall punches landed will be higher. If you look at the compubox for his last few fights, except the Pacquiao match he pretty much matches you punch for punch, while making you look silly with exceptional foot speed, and good movement.
Another thing to look out for is his head butts in the early rounds. After looking at Marquez's face, and rewatching the fight I realized that his face inflammation was caused in the exact spot where he was butted in the 1st or 2nd round. (Source: fight, and the Golpe a Golpe Special after the fight on the Spanish language ESPN). Of course Bradley's accurate punches later in the fight softened it up more, but the main damage appears to come from that. So in those instances defend yourself with a high guard and time lateral movement so his symmetrical dome lands on your elbows. Similar to what Floyd did against Hatton, Ortiz and several others.
Distance is another way in which Bradley is exceptional. Even a master of distance like JMM could not control the distance. JMM in my opinion has never had great foot work, and as a result he has been knocked down several times due to this. In the Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4, Mayweather fights the main issue in his knockdowns was his feet (of course he got clocked good, but if he had better footwork these ones could have been avoided). But he is great at using distance to offset your offense (look at Marquez vs. Pacquiao III). I am not including the knockdowns in the Pacquiao vs. Marquez I and II, and I believe the Barrera/Katsidis came from clean punches where the foot issues were not as relevant. The way to control distance is to just negate Bradley's distance, even if you have to give up your own desired distance. My reasoning for this is below. I know it sounds counterproductive but.....
In the Marquez fight you can see that Bradley can operate from a distance due to his speed and the unpredictability of his punch choices (this is one of the things I believe Marquez overlooked) virtually unopposed. Since Marquez was on the attack he operated in the fashion of trying to close the distance and trying to land his right hand. I think that after seeing the discrepancy in foot speed, Marquez should allow Bradley to keep his distance. Once he sees any forward movement from Bradley, Marquez should have taken a diagonal step backwards and used a jab. If you look at the punch stats Marquez did not utilize a jab. I agree that in going in on Bradley with slower hands the jab could be counter-productive (you might miss any good opportunities to land a nice solid power punch). But since it is the longest punch that you can throw it is useful in backing up, and off putting Bradley's quicker offence. He should have goaded Bradley into thinking he was controlling the distance and avoided the exchanges that Bradley was initiating. At this point Bradley would have to reach to land punches. This would negate his control of distance (part of ring generalship), and possibly result in winning some of the closer rounds.
Bradley beat Marquez in many of those exchanges due to greater accuracy, and since through speed+head movement he was able to roll with most of Marquez's landed punches. The result was that Bradley was only semi wobbled a few times in the fight even though Marquez does have decent power.
I agree this would have muffled Marquez offense in the fight but the fact was that Marquez's offense was not as effective as it normally is. Truthfully the only way that I believe Marquez could have won this fight is through hurting Bradley and dropping him or KOing him. Bradley having to reach in would create more opportunities to land scoring blows, and tire him out more.
Finally what fighters around 140-154 do you guys think would give Bradley a hard fight, and why (stylewise)? Also what could a fighter that is not as athletic as Bradley do to win?
In my opinion Pacquiao beat Bradley but I am wondering what style beats Bradley on paper. After watching a few Bradley fights I see why the judges have such a hard time scoring his fights. I also remember a great thread on here about this.
He lands a good amount of quick punches that don't carry a lot of steam. At the same time his foot movement keeps you from landing clean punches. Even if the punches land clean on him, it is hard to follow up. Even in the Pacquiao fight, in which I thought Bradley lost by a few rounds, I can understand why some people gave Bradley 4-5 rounds.
Bradley is a great fighter in that he takes you out of your game plan. Pretty much every single round in the Marquez fight he was controlling the pace, distance, and territory of the fight. For this reason most of the close rounds went to him since he confused Marquez. His ring generalship makes it hard to score against him.
What style of fighter do you guys think would create trouble for Bradley in a consistent fashion?
For example: most slick boxers, and movers give Marquez a hard time. This is a trend that is prevalent through his career. (Mayweather, Bradley, Norwood, John).
__________________________________________________ _____
Again I am just a fan of boxing with only a few amateur matches in my younger years. But I think one of the ways to beat Bradley is to not try to knock him out. You should bring up your volume with him, and not concern yourself with landing hard. Essentially fight him "pitty-pat for pitty-pat". This way the overall punches landed will be higher. If you look at the compubox for his last few fights, except the Pacquiao match he pretty much matches you punch for punch, while making you look silly with exceptional foot speed, and good movement.
Another thing to look out for is his head butts in the early rounds. After looking at Marquez's face, and rewatching the fight I realized that his face inflammation was caused in the exact spot where he was butted in the 1st or 2nd round. (Source: fight, and the Golpe a Golpe Special after the fight on the Spanish language ESPN). Of course Bradley's accurate punches later in the fight softened it up more, but the main damage appears to come from that. So in those instances defend yourself with a high guard and time lateral movement so his symmetrical dome lands on your elbows. Similar to what Floyd did against Hatton, Ortiz and several others.
Distance is another way in which Bradley is exceptional. Even a master of distance like JMM could not control the distance. JMM in my opinion has never had great foot work, and as a result he has been knocked down several times due to this. In the Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4, Mayweather fights the main issue in his knockdowns was his feet (of course he got clocked good, but if he had better footwork these ones could have been avoided). But he is great at using distance to offset your offense (look at Marquez vs. Pacquiao III). I am not including the knockdowns in the Pacquiao vs. Marquez I and II, and I believe the Barrera/Katsidis came from clean punches where the foot issues were not as relevant. The way to control distance is to just negate Bradley's distance, even if you have to give up your own desired distance. My reasoning for this is below. I know it sounds counterproductive but.....
In the Marquez fight you can see that Bradley can operate from a distance due to his speed and the unpredictability of his punch choices (this is one of the things I believe Marquez overlooked) virtually unopposed. Since Marquez was on the attack he operated in the fashion of trying to close the distance and trying to land his right hand. I think that after seeing the discrepancy in foot speed, Marquez should allow Bradley to keep his distance. Once he sees any forward movement from Bradley, Marquez should have taken a diagonal step backwards and used a jab. If you look at the punch stats Marquez did not utilize a jab. I agree that in going in on Bradley with slower hands the jab could be counter-productive (you might miss any good opportunities to land a nice solid power punch). But since it is the longest punch that you can throw it is useful in backing up, and off putting Bradley's quicker offence. He should have goaded Bradley into thinking he was controlling the distance and avoided the exchanges that Bradley was initiating. At this point Bradley would have to reach to land punches. This would negate his control of distance (part of ring generalship), and possibly result in winning some of the closer rounds.
Bradley beat Marquez in many of those exchanges due to greater accuracy, and since through speed+head movement he was able to roll with most of Marquez's landed punches. The result was that Bradley was only semi wobbled a few times in the fight even though Marquez does have decent power.
I agree this would have muffled Marquez offense in the fight but the fact was that Marquez's offense was not as effective as it normally is. Truthfully the only way that I believe Marquez could have won this fight is through hurting Bradley and dropping him or KOing him. Bradley having to reach in would create more opportunities to land scoring blows, and tire him out more.
Finally what fighters around 140-154 do you guys think would give Bradley a hard fight, and why (stylewise)? Also what could a fighter that is not as athletic as Bradley do to win?
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